B.C. government resists intervention in LNG Canada pipeline dispute
Credit to Author: Rob Shaw| Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2020 01:01:11 +0000
VICTORIA — The B.C. government resisted calls Monday to intervene in a blockade of a natural gas pipeline project near Houston, despite it threatening the future of a $40-billion LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat that the governing New Democrats have publicly championed as an economic boon for the province.
Neither Premier John Horgan nor Energy Minister Michelle Mungall would comment on the blockade Monday, amid reports the RCMP were amassing in the area to enforce a recently-won B.C. Supreme Court injunction and clear Wet’suwet’en First Nations members, hereditary chiefs and protesters opposed to the project construction.
Instead, Mungall’s ministry issued a statement that sidestepped the issue of whether the government would back a pipeline project that is under provincial jurisdiction, already has all necessary provincial permits and is crucial to the viability of a liquefied natural gas project the government has already awarded $6 billion in tax breaks to entice into construction.
“On December 31, the Supreme Court of B.C. made a determination and its ruling confirmed the company is lawfully permitted to conduct their work,” read the statement.
“Construction activities have been taking place across northern B.C. for the last year, and it’s the provincial government’s role to ensure this work is in line with regulatory and legislative obligations. Any enforcement considerations related to the court’s ruling is an operational matter for the police to consider, independent of government.”
Coastal GasLink, the company behind the 670-kilometre, $6.6-billion, natural gas pipeline from Dawson Creek to LNG Canada in Kitimat, vowed in a statement Monday to “remobilize construction crews … in anticipation of work resumption and ramp up this week.”
That sets the stage for another clash between police and representatives of hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en nation that insist they have not given permission for the pipeline on their unceded traditional territories.
The hereditary chiefs were meeting Monday and could not be immediately reached for comment, but a news conference was scheduled for Tuesday in Smithers to mark the first anniversary of arrests at the Wet’suwet’en camp known as Gidimt’en.
The Gidimt’en camp is one of two long-standing Wet’suwet’en locations occupied by people opposed to the pipeline. The Unist’ot’en camp, also along the pipeline route, was first set up a decade ago.
A map showing the route of the Coastal GasLink project taken from a Dec. 16, 2019 project update issued by Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project and TC Energy.
In a statement, the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs said Tuesday’s news conference will address “the eviction, and the possibilities of what comes next, as well as what is required for respectful nation-to-nation engagement.”
Coastal GasLink has signed benefit-sharing deals with all elected First Nations bands and councils along the pipeline route, but not with the traditional governing bodies and hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en.
The NDP government’s statement Monday was a far cry from the support Horgan showed in January 2019, when police arrested 14 protesters at the site as part of an interim court injunction that made international headlines. Then, Horgan said LNG Canada and Coastal GasLink had fulfilled all the requirements of government and that protesters were breaking the law.
“It is my view that LNG Canada has shown the importance of consultation and meaningful reconciliation with First Nations and that’s why they have signed agreements with every First Nation along the pipeline corridor,” Horgan said.
The Opposition Liberals questioned the government’s lack of support Monday.
“This is the largest single industrial project in Canadian history and is a large part of the future of British Columbia’s prosperity and somehow the NDP think that it’s not important and it’s OK to let it drift into the ditch,” said Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson.
“The attitude of the provincial government is very important because these are provincial government permits and if they are going to be issued and then ignored it’s a big problem for British Columbia and everybody who lives here. We either have the rule of law on permitting or we don’t.”
The LNG Canada project in Kitimat will ship B.C. LNG overseas, in the process pumping an estimated $22 billion in revenue to the province over 40 years. The sole source of the natural gas to be liquefied at the terminal is slated to come from Coastal GasLink’s pipeline, said Susannah Pierce, director of corporate affairs for LNG Canada.
“In the absence of the pipeline, the project doesn’t make sense,” she said Monday.
Pierce said the protest needs to be put into the larger context of the 20 economic agreements with First Nations along the route, and a proposed terminal that will allow B.C. to get landlocked natural gas from its northeast region to market. Pipeline construction is set to run to 2021.
“I think we’re quite confident Coastal GasLink will get through this and be good and ready to go before we’re ready to export,” she said.
With files from The Canadian Press