Image from Pacific Northwest LNG.

A staggering C$1.149 billion ($958 million) – that’s how much money developers had offered the Lax Kw’alaams Band, a First Nation community of 3,600 on  British Columbia’s northwest coast, for clearance to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in their territory.

They said no.

“Hopefully, the public will recognize that unanimous consensus in communities (and where unanimity is the exception) against a project where those communities are offered in excess of a billion dollars, sends an unequivocal message this is not a money issue: This is environmental and cultural,” Garry Reece, mayor of the band, said in a statement announcing the vote on Wednesday, according to the New York Times

The Times notes that the Lax Kw’alaams Band might not have absolute veto power over the Petronas-led Pacific Northwest LNG project, which the tribe fears could “harm fish habitats, particularly for salmon.” CBCNews reported that B.C. Premier Christy Clark believes “rejection of the liquefied-natural-gas terminal is nothing more than a bump in the road,” and a negotiated settlement will be reached.