Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation and Gitxsan Huwilp Government Call for Meaningful Consultation on Seabridge KSM Project
Nations say consultation on the KSM Project must reflect the Province’s updated recognition of traditional territory and the BC Supreme Court’s ruling
The Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation (TSKLH) along with its neighbouring Gitxsan Huwilp Government are calling on the Province of British Columbia and Seabridge Gold Inc. (TSX:SEA, NYSE:SA) to undertake meaningful consultation and accommodation concerning the proposed KSM Project, including the enormous waste facility that Seabridge wants to build in the Treaty Creek Valley.
HAZELTON, September 21, 2026 — The Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation (TSKLH) along with its neighbouring Gitxsan Huwilp Government are calling on the Province of British Columbia and Seabridge Gold Inc. (TSX:SEA, NYSE:SA) to undertake meaningful consultation and accommodation concerning the proposed KSM Project, including the enormous waste facility that Seabridge wants to build in the Treaty Creek Valley.
Chief Darlene Simpson explains that TSKLH is not asking for the original environmental assessment to be repeated. Rather, the Nation says the current consultation process on the project’s substantial start designation must reflect the Province’s changed understanding of TSKLH’s interests and territory, as required by the BC Supreme Court in Tsetsaut Skii Km Lax Ha Nation v. British Columbia (Environment and Parks), 2026 BCSC 1042.
The Court found that the Province failed to fulfill its constitutional duty to consult TSKLH, quashed the July 2024 substantial start determination, and sent the matter back to the Minister of Environment and Parks for reconsideration after renewed consultation with the Nation. Until this happens, TSKLH and Gitxsan stand in solidarity in withholding their support for the mining project.
The ruling recognizes that the Crown’s consultation obligations can evolve as its understanding of an Indigenous Nation’s rights and territorial interests changes. Provincial ethnohistoric work completed in 2021 expanded the Province’s understanding of TSKLH’s territorial claim, including the Treaty Creek Valley area designated for the proposed waste facility. The Gitxsan also have Laxyip outside the KSM Project area that could be substantially impacted.
TSKLH says the proposed waste facility creates serious risks that would drastically change its territory for generations. The Nation along with the Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs are seeking consultation that addresses those potential effects directly, along with accommodation proportionate to the scale and duration of the project.
Meaningful accommodation should include a substantive role for TSKLH in decisions relating to the waste facility, participation in long-term environmental and risk management, and fair access to project benefits where impacts to the Nation’s rights and territory cannot be avoided. The Province now recognizes that “all evidence suggests” that the Treaty Creek Valley area, designated for the KSM waste facility, is part of TSKLH’s territory. Moreover, no other Indigenous people even claims the KSM Project’s separate ore body site. The Province’s heightened consultation obligations now owed to TSKLH must translate into a corresponding increase in the accommodation of the concerns of TSKLH as the host First Nation for the KSM Project.
“Our responsibility is to protect our territory and uphold the rights and interests of our members today and for generations to come,” says Chief Simpson. “Consultation must be based on the Province’s current understanding of our territory and must lead to meaningful measures that address the risks this project creates.”
TSKLH and Gitxsan remain prepared to engage with the Province and the project proponent in good faith say Gitxsan Huwilp Government Co-Chairs, Gwiiyeehl, Brian Williams (Gigeenix) and Moolaxan // Norman Moore (Gyeets): “the two Nations expect the reconsideration process to give practical effect to the Court’s direction and to produce concrete, enforceable outcomes that protect TSKLH and Gitxsan rights, territory, and future generations.”
Gitxsan, is a traditional society, governed by a system of Ayookw (laws) and (Adaakw) oral histories. The Gitxsan Laxyip (lands) covers 35,000 sq. km in Northwest BC from Terrace to Hazelton to Smithers, Gitxsan have occupied their traditional territories since time immemorial, led by Hereditary Chiefs. Of the 35,000 sq.km, Gitxsan control 70% of the Laxyip (lands), excluding roads, bridges and 100% of their Anaat (waters) of the upper Skeena River around Legate Creek to the Skeena's headwaters and its surrounding tributaries. Gitxsan are 18,000 worldwide. Visit Gitxsan.ca for more information. Visit: Gitxsan.ca
The Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation are descendants of the Laxwiiyip Tsetsaut, an independent self-governing people who occupied Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha territory at the time the British Crown asserted sovereignty in the region. Visit: tsklhnation.ca.