While the U.S. government has passed into law a tax reform bill that opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) coastal plain to oil and gas drilling, the fight to protect the Alaskan area appears far from over.

In Canada, the Gwich’in people – including the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in the Yukon – have led the push against the tax bill and Alaskan senator Lisa Murkowski’s efforts to permit drilling in the refuge.

Drilling would threaten the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou, an animal sacred to the Gwich’in people that migrates to the ANWR coastal plain every year.

Chris Rider is the executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s (CPAWS’) Yukon chapter.

He told the Star this morning that his organization will continue to follow the Gwich’in lead – which could include legal action.

“There’s a lot of options that are on the table,” Rider said, including “legal options that are similar to the way we took the government to court over the Peel watershed.”

CPAWS was one of the appellants in the Peel Supreme Court challenge, alongside three Yukon First Nations.

“Even though this has been a huge disappointment the last few weeks, I think that in the long term ... the Gwich’in people, with support of groups like ours and people from around the country, we’re going to win this,” Rider said.

The Yukon and Vuntut Gwitchin governments released a joint statement last Friday.

It expresses sadness over the passage of the tax bill and ANWR drilling provisions into U.S. law.

That action, it reads, “goes against the spirit” of the Canada-U.S. agreement on Porcupine caribou herd conservation.

The ongoing, legally-binding treaty between Canada and the United States came into force in 1987.

Its objectives, according to a Government of Canada website, include conserving the herd and its habitat, protecting against damage and adverse effects to both and ensuring residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska have opportunities to use the Porcupine caribou in traditional ways.

“This remarkable herd has sustained communities across the northwest Arctic for millennia by providing an integral food source and way of life,” the joint government statement reads.

“Traditional and scientific knowledge will be at the forefront of our efforts as we endeavour to make sure a Canadian voice is heard during the U.S. regulatory process.”

Rider noted remarkable collaboration among the various parties that have been working to protect the caribou and their calving grounds on the ANWR coastal plain.

“This is one of those few instances where you see everyone on this side of the border all pulling together,” he said.

The New York Times reported last week that while drilling in the refuge has now been legislated, activity isn’t poised to begin right away.

The law now requires that one lease sale occur within four years, but “lawsuits and other actions by opponents of drilling could slow things, both before and after any lease sales,” the Times reported.

Rider pointed out that one strategy available to block movement on drilling in the coastal plain is to run out the clock until the next U.S. election in November 2020.

“If we can delay this for the next three or four years, we may be in a very different situation,” Rider explained.

The Republican tax reform bill and the president who signed it into law – Donald Trump – could both be ousted after the next presidential election.

In the meantime, Rider said, the Canadian government needs to take a stronger, more formal stand in the fight for ANWR.

He acknowledged that the Yukon’s representative in Ottawa, Liberal MP Larry Bagnell, has been “incredible and unwavering in his support.”

The CPAWS Yukon website hosts a petition calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fight against the Trump administration’s push to open ANWR to drilling.

Yukoners can also sign and send postcards to Ottawa to express their solidarity with the Gwich’in people, Rider said.

The postcards are available from CPAWS Yukon. Postage is free.