Skeena MLA Ellis Ross is not a politician's politician. Ross, who has been the MLA for Skeena region in northern BC since 2017 was a Haisla Chief prior to his entry into the Municipal Legislative Assembly and before that, a water taxi driver.

CICK News journalist Chris Gareau spoke with Ross on Tuesday, March 9th. Ross stated that this was the right time because he's "learned enough by now about the legislature and the politics to understand that we need to rebuild bc when we come out of COVID-19."

Ross is early in his bid for leadership of the BC Liberal Party -- the vote won't happen for over another year, but he wants to be viewed as a hungry candidate for the party to bring a healthy economy to northern BC (citing the village of Kitimat welcoming LNG pipeline work through the Haisla Territory).

Ross is a supporter of the pipeline as a source of economic growth for the territories of Skeena. He said that "Rights and Titles cannot be owned by individuals, and that Rights and Titles [to land] can only be run by a group, or collective [...] and that reconciliation in terms to case law was achieved."

Ross says that he has a "firm commitment to environment" and that while he thinks climate change strategies are important, he is more concerned with "the poverty rates, suicide rates, unemployment, the amount of Aboriginals going to prison, the amount of Aboriginals with children in government care. For every First Nation council in BC, that's the first thing to hit your table: and a lot of companies make that mistake when they first come to your table, they think the first question they have to answer is revenues and jobs. That is not the first question. The first question you have to address is environment."

Listen in to Chris Gareau's full interview with Skeena MLA Ellis Ross below.