Premier Wab Kinew says there is no opposition among Indigenous leaders in northern Manitoba to the liquefied natural gas pipeline he hopes to see built as part of an effort to expand the Port of Churchill.

While formal consultations on the proposed pipeline have yet to begin, he told CBC News podcast Front Burner that opposition does not exist among the chiefs who are working with the province on the port expansion.

“No, I don’t think there is Indigenous opposition,” Kinew said during an episode posted Wednesday.

He said northern Manitoba chiefs, whose ranks include members of Port of Churchill owner Arctic Gateway Group, are well aware the port expansion includes a liquefied natural gas pipeline.

“I think everyone is pretty well informed who’s been at the table engaging with us about the possibility of a pipeline,” Kinew said Thursday during a scrum with reporters in his office at the Manitoba Legislative Building.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, the organization that represents 26 northern First Nations, has not expressed specific support for a pipeline.

MKO said in a statement Thursday that each of its member First Nations will determine their own path when it comes to resource development projects.

WATCH | No Indigenous opposition to pipelines, premier says:

No Indigenous opposition to LNG pipelines: Wab Kinew

Manitoba’s premier says First Nations leaders do not oppose a plan to build a liquified natural gas pipeline to the Port of Churchill.

“Governments must always uphold their constitutional obligations and honour the inherent rights and jurisdiction of First Nations,” MKO said in the statement.

“Every potential major project, energy corridor or critical minerals development in northern Manitoba will be subject to the Crown’s legal obligation to carry out the duty to consult in a manner consistent with the honour of the Crown.”

Clayton Thomas-Müller, a Cree activist and author, said Kinew has gotten ahead of himself by asserting there is no opposition to pipelines.

Thomas-Müller said consultations about a pipeline have yet to be held in his home community of Mathias Colomb First Nation.

“There has been zero consultations on an LNG export terminal, on LNG pipelines or any other forms of energy to be exported out of Churchill,” he said in Winnipeg’s Osborne Village on Thursday.

“I think that the premier needs to hit the brakes a little bit with the rhetoric and stop talking about this project like it’s a done deal because it’s certainly not. There is Indigenous opposition.”

MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee made a similar point in Ottawa earlier this week.

Settee told the Senate’s standing committee on Indigenous peoples Tuesday that in his experience, Manitoba largely skips over the justification step in the duty-to-consult process and returns to it after the fact.

“Governments and developers assume incorrectly that any infringements of acknowledged and constitutionally protected rights are pre-justified, and consultations are really about mitigation and accommodation measures,” he told the committee.

“MKO describes this constitutionally flawed approach to the Crown’s duty to consult, consistent with the honour of the Crown, as, ‘Let’s make a deal.'”

Kinew said Thursday he was not aware of Settee’s comments.

The province and Arctic Gateway Group are still studying the Port of Churchill expansion and the proposed pipeline. No cost estimates associated with the pipeline or improvements to the port or the Hudson Bay Railway have been made public.

Kinew has said Prime Minister Mark Carney has given Manitoba a 2030 deadline to build a gas pipeline to Churchill.