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An agreement between the Pacheedaht First Nation and the federal government will pave the way for a new emergency rescue and environmental response facility in Port Renfrew.

A multi-purpose marine response service is planned under a memorandum of understanding signed in Port Renfrew on Monday.

The Canadian Coast Guard and the First Nation will co-manage the facility, a federal news release said.

Pacheedaht Chief Jeff Jones said the construction of the centre has been a vision of the First Nation for many years.

“It will help Pacheedaht exercise a greater role in protecting and managing the 112 kilometres marine coastline, vast territorial waters and abundant resources,” he said.

The planned facility will provide marine search-and-rescue services and environmental response and will bolster marine safety and response in the Juan de Fuca Strait.

The project is part of the ccommunity response initiative of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

Bernadette Jordan, minister of fisheries and oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, said the goal is to work in partnership with Indigenous Peoples to manage the natural environment.

“Indigenous Peoples have lived on the Pacific coast for thousands of years, and their knowledge of this environment is unparalleled,” Jordan said in a statement. “Working nation-to-nation with Pacheedaht First Nation, is not only the right thing to do, it is what is best for the land, the people of this region, and the country as a whole.”

cjwilson@timescolonist.com