Indians warn of Canadian pipeline blockade

EDMONTON, Alberta, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Several central Canadian Indian tribes are threatening to blockade construction of a major Canada-U.S. oil pipeline over contracts and jobs.

Indian chiefs from Alberta and Saskatchewan began a second day of meetings Tuesday in Edmonton, Alberta, with representatives of Enbridge Pipelines over concerns with the Alberta Clipper line, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported.

Red Pheasant Chief Sheldon Wuttunee told the newspaper as the group spokesman Indians were getting only a small number of temporary, unskilled jobs such as fence-building or storage watchman positions.

"Promises were broken. These pipelines are running through our traditional lands, and the First Nations are getting peanuts here," Wuttunee said.

Enbridge spokeswoman Gina Jordan told the newspaper construction on the pipeline is very new.

"We haven't (yet) hit the peak number for employment," she said.

The multimillion-dollar project is scheduled for completion in 2010, and is to provide as much as 800,000 barrels of crude oil daily from Alberta, through Saskatchewan and Manitoba, to Superior, Wis., the report said.