Latest news with #CoastalGasLink
Calgary Herald
31-07-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Nelson: Reconcile this Alberta — new pipelines remain pipe dreams
Indra Johsnson holds a sign as part of a protest on the TransCanada Highway leading to the Confederation Bridge. A group of people, including First Nations, was opposing the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline project, joining movements across the country. Photo: Sarah Seeley/Times & Tran So this is what reconciliation involves: accepting that nothing of major importance can be built in Canada today without approval from a variety of Indigenous groups. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Calgary Herald ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors When you remind folk at every public event that you're on traditional land, don't be too surprised when they eventually take you at your word and act accordingly. That's why Alberta's hopes and dreams for more pipelines to any of Canada's three oceans are doomed. Not a single shovel will disturb the earth, despite all the current rhetoric emanating from provincial and federal politicians. Take, for example, a proposed pipeline to northern B.C., one that would transport Alberta crude to the shores of the Pacific and then onward to Asia, a project much loved by Premier Danielle Smith. Your weekday lunchtime roundup of curated links, news highlights, analysis and features. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again You don't need a PhD in economics to understand that such a project is doomed if you can't ship the oil once it arrives at the coast. Or rather, you can't ship it by tanker. (Presumably, filling millions of jerry cans and floating them across the water to Japan isn't a viable option.) But seriously, there's a law on the books banning any such tanker activity along that particular coastline. It was put in place when Justin Trudeau led his long-running Liberal minority government, held together by the NDP's Jagmeet Singh as an unwitting stooge. Of course, the Grits could repeal that law. Yes, they still have a minority government under Mark Carney, but the opposition Tories would be willing backers of such a move. So nothing is preventing the tanker ban from being deep-sixed. But it isn't going to happen. Chief Marilyn Slett of the Coastal First Nation knows the score. Her Nation recently explained it in an open letter to Carney. 'That's a non-starter,' she curtly announced. Actually, as soon as Carney started talking about fast-tracking major projects in response to the economic threat that potential U.S. tariffs hold, various Indigenous leaders came forth and talked about having a sacred duty to be stewards of the land. But nobody dares ask what that actually means. Cut through the grandiosity, and it suggests watching the prairie grass grow while the country slides into economic oblivion, patched over, for the moment, by ludicrous levels of deficit spending. Were there a politician not completely intimidated by decades of apologizing for actually building a modern state, complete with universal education, widespread health-care access and a global reputation second to none, it might be pointed out to certain Indigenous groups that our country's rapidly going broke, and therefore the Ottawa money tap could run dry.
National Observer
25-07-2025
- Business
- National Observer
Wet'suwet'en complaint to bank puts Ottawa on notice over nation-building agenda
The Wet'suwet'en Nation has spent years fighting fossil fuel projects that rip through their land in British Columbia without consent. Now, as familiar threats mount, the nation has taken the issue to Tokyo — where a corporate battle could serve as a warning for Prime Minister Mark Carney as he pursues his infrastructure agenda. Wet'suwet'en hereditary Chief Na'Moks filed a complaint last week with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation's (JBIC) independently appointed environmental examiners — tasked with investigating alleged environmental wrongdoing — detailing environmental harms and human rights abuses from the construction of the Coastal Gaslink project that transports fracked gas from the Montney region in the province's northeast to LNG Canada's export terminal on the coast. The bank loaned US $850 million to the project in 2021. 'Despite the Wet'suwet'en having repeatedly rejected the project, JBIC proceeded to approve financing for the LNG Canada terminal and the associated Coastal GasLink pipeline without securing proper [free, prior and informed consent],' the filing reads. The filing called the approval without the hereditary chiefs' consent 'a fundamental breach of both Canadian law and international human rights standards.' The issues raised in the complaint may hinge on actions taken in the past, but as Carney prioritizes major projects in the name of nation-building, the concerns detailed in the filing serve as a warning for the risks ahead, Na'Moks told Canada's National Observer. 'We're living in a petrostate being enforced by a police state,' he said in a phone call from the sidelines of the First Nations major projects summit. 'Everybody goes 'Oh not in Canada.' 'I said, 'Wait until they come through your doors with axes and power saws. Wait until you step outside and have snipers.'' 'We're living in a petrostate being enforced by a police state,' Wet'suwet'en Nation Hereditary Chief Na'Moks said. "Wait until they come through your doors with axes and power saws. Wait until you step outside and have snipers.' At the First Nations summit last week, Carney said no major projects have been finalized and he was there to listen to Indigenous leadership. However, as Canada's National Observer reported, there are more than a dozen megaprojects already under consideration. Multiple government sources have told Canada's National Observer that an expansion to LNG Canada is very likely to make Carney's list. Ultimately the decision to invest rests with LNG Canada's owners (Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and the Korean Gas Corporation), but incentivizing the companies to invest appears to be a major priority for Carney's government. That's concerning to We'suwet'en hereditary leadership. The complaint filed against JBIC urges the bank to 'immediately suspend any further financing' of the LNG Canada project, including potential expansions. Na'Moks said his experience watching a major project built through his nation's territory without consent gives him an up-close view to the risks that are now afoot as Ottawa contemplates a renewed push to build. 'We know we were the template for how they're going to protect industry without our approval,' he said. Battling the banks As the Coastal Gaslink pipeline was being built four years ago, land defenders from the nation and its allies blockaded roads and set up camp at the Gidimt'en Checkpoint to slow construction and push costs up in a bid to stop the pipeline. Armed RCMP officers hacked through the door of one small cabin to arrest those inside in a dramatic scene captured by photojournalist Amber Bracken and filmmaker Michael Toladano (an event that is now the subject of a lawsuit from Bracken's employer, The Narwhal). Weeks later, more land defenders were arrested at standoffs with police, with several claiming dehumanizing treatment as they were hauled to police headquarters and held in enclosures the size of a 'dog kennel.' The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in 2022 it 'profoundly regrets and is concerned' that Canada is forcibly removing Indigenous land defenders from their unceded territory, and the provincial and federal governments have been similarly condemned by leading human rights group Amnesty International. As the furor around those arrests faded, Wet'suwet'en hereditary leadership continued to fight the pipeline by targeting its financiers. They attended shareholder meetings and confronted bank leadership. Nevertheless, the pipeline was built and the first shipment of LNG from Kitimat departed this summer. Na'Moks said the nation decided to file a complaint with the JBIC because the bank finances LNG Canada. The bank has environmental and social guidelines to help determine which projects to invest in, but the complaint alleges JBIC failed to meaningfully implement them. Na'Moks said that filing the complaint is to provide the 'right information' because the reports the bank has received are 'a copy and paste from industry and government.' 'Without the CGL pipeline, the LNG Canada terminal would not be viable; and without JBIC's financing, this export infrastructure system would not have progressed at its current scale,' the complaint reads. 'JBIC's financing played a decisive role in enabling this interconnected system. And by failing to adequately review the impacts of its associated facility, JBIC bears responsibility for contributing to the resulting harm.' JBIC did not return a request for comment. De-escalating a fraught situation LNG Canada's first shipment overseas marks a turning point for the gas sector in Canada. Before the LNG export terminal began sending shipments abroad, 99.9 per cent of Canadian gas exports headed into the United States. With US President Donald Trump threatening a drawn-out trade war, Carney riding to victory in April's election on a promise to build up Canada's economic resilience, and the fossil fuel industry lobbying for more oil and gas infrastructure, the country is staring down the barrel of a major fossil fuel expansion — including in Kitimat itself. If LNG Canada Phase 2 is built, expanding export capacity at the site will involve increasing storage tanks, new processing facilities and more tanker traffic through vulnerable coastal waters. But it will also mean increasing the amount of gas fracked in northeastern BC, and sending more gas through the Coastal GasLink pipeline. To do that, additional compressor stations will need to be built to squeeze more gas into the pipeline. 'With more gas flowing you have increased risk,' said Richard Brooks, climate finance director at To stay onside with UNDRIP, as Carney has committed, communities like the Wet'suwet'en First Nation would have to consent to new facilities like compressor stations being built — otherwise their rights under both Canadian and international law would be violated. For Brooks, this is a major lesson Ottawa must learn. When Indigenous rights are 'trampled,' opposition to proposed projects skyrocket — and that then impacts the viability of the projects. He pointed to increased legal costs, security costs and lengthy delays that push construction costs higher. 'Indigenous communities have proven time and time again … that they have the power to slow and stop projects from moving ahead,' he said. 'So this is why it's so important to have First Nations involved from the beginning to be proponents of these projects, to have the process be one that is not imposed, but rather is a collaborative process, whatever project it is.' Carney has said projects will proceed with Indigenous consent, but by putting in place legislation to fast-track projects before securing consent from nations who could be affected, there are plenty of risks ahead, said Senwung Luk, a partner at law firm Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, specializing in Aboriginal rights and title and the Crown's fiduciary obligations to First Nations. Luk said Carney would have been better off starting with a list of projects, and thinking about which nations would need to consent to figure out how to build them — rather than starting with a new law that gives the federal government the ability to bulldoze over concerns. 'It's an odd way to start a conversation, to point a nuclear weapon at the person that you're trying to talk to,' he said. 'If you believe in free, prior and informed consent, you can't only believe in that except for when Indigenous people oppose your project,' he said. 'That wouldn't be any sort of meaningful concept of consent.'
Edmonton Journal
21-07-2025
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
Varcoe: Carney government needs 'quick wins' from energy projects and to address internal challenges on Bill C-5, says new report
Article content 'This is an existential moment for Canada where we have both an opportunity and an obligation to become both more prosperous and more sovereign.' Article content Article content Prime Minister Mark Carney told the Calgary Herald recently it is 'highly likely' an oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast will be included on the federal list, although he said it will be up to private sector proponents to drive any proposal. Article content The report calls Bill C-5 a 'welcome transformative step' as it will allow Ottawa to streamline the authorization of major projects and approve them within two years, co-ordinated by a single federal office. It will also help meet the growing need for energy in the world. Article content 'There is low-hanging fruit. Some things are ready to go . . . Time is ticking,' report co-author Heather Exner-Pirot said in an interview. Article content 'Let's start seeing some action. Let's start seeing some projects.' Article content Article content If the changes under Bill C-5 had been in place for three energy projects that were completed earlier this decade — the Trans Mountain expansion, LNG Canada and the Coastal GasLink pipeline — it would have been valuable, but led to a 'relatively modest' average time savings of 1.5 years, the study notes. Article content These findings highlight the need to address challenges early in the development of a major project, it states. Article content Projects that should be on the list and can move quickly include the Ksi Lisims LNG project on the northwest B.C. coast, a second phase of LNG Canada, and steps to boost the capacity of Trans Mountain, said Exner-Pirot, who is also director of natural resources, energy and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Article content However, the bill has sparked some criticism about the impact of speeding up the approval process, and Carney met with First Nations leaders last week and heard some of their concerns with Bill C-5. Article content Article content 'Free, prior and informed consent on First Nations Lands is non-negotiable. An advisory role is inadequate for real partnership,' Grand Chief Greg Desjarlais of the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nation said Friday in a news release. Article content 'I will trust actions over words as we look to move forward.' Article content To mitigate risks and concerns about an expedited approval process, Ottawa needs to 'deepen Indigenous engagement . . . to ensure genuine, equitable partnerships and meaningful participation,' states the report from the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations, which includes academics, energy experts and business leaders. Article content 'Consultation should begin as early as possible and continue throughout the project lifecycle.' Article content The report says Ottawa should launch a formal process surrounding co-developing benefit-sharing and equity ownership agreements with Indigenous communities for major projects. It recommends transparent standards for consultation, such as timelines and public disclosure of the outcomes.
Calgary Herald
21-07-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Varcoe: Carney government needs 'quick wins' from energy projects and to address internal challenges on Bill C-5, says new report
Article content 'This is an existential moment for Canada where we have both an opportunity and an obligation to become both more prosperous and more sovereign.' Article content Article content Prime Minister Mark Carney told the Calgary Herald recently it is 'highly likely' an oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast will be included on the federal list, although he said it will be up to private sector proponents to drive any proposal. Article content The report calls Bill C-5 a 'welcome transformative step' as it will allow Ottawa to streamline the authorization of major projects and approve them within two years, co-ordinated by a single federal office. It will also help meet the growing need for energy in the world. Article content 'There is low-hanging fruit. Some things are ready to go . . . Time is ticking,' report co-author Heather Exner-Pirot said in an interview. Article content 'Let's start seeing some action. Let's start seeing some projects.' Article content Article content If the changes under Bill C-5 had been in place for three energy projects that were completed earlier this decade — the Trans Mountain expansion, LNG Canada and the Coastal GasLink pipeline — it would have been valuable, but led to a 'relatively modest' average time savings of 1.5 years, the study notes. Article content These findings highlight the need to address challenges early in the development of a major project, it states. Article content Projects that should be on the list and can move quickly include the Ksi Lisims LNG project on the northwest B.C. coast, a second phase of LNG Canada, and steps to boost the capacity of Trans Mountain, said Exner-Pirot, who is also director of natural resources, energy and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Article content However, the bill has sparked some criticism about the impact of speeding up the approval process, and Carney met with First Nations leaders last week and heard some of their concerns with Bill C-5. Article content Article content 'Free, prior and informed consent on First Nations Lands is non-negotiable. An advisory role is inadequate for real partnership,' Grand Chief Greg Desjarlais of the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nation said Friday in a news release. Article content 'I will trust actions over words as we look to move forward.' Article content To mitigate risks and concerns about an expedited approval process, Ottawa needs to 'deepen Indigenous engagement . . . to ensure genuine, equitable partnerships and meaningful participation,' states the report from the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations, which includes academics, energy experts and business leaders. Article content 'Consultation should begin as early as possible and continue throughout the project lifecycle.' Article content The report says Ottawa should launch a formal process surrounding co-developing benefit-sharing and equity ownership agreements with Indigenous communities for major projects. It recommends transparent standards for consultation, such as timelines and public disclosure of the outcomes.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Canada can become an LNG powerhouse, but it will take innovation and determination
By Chris Cooper On a blustery afternoon last week, on the eve of Canada Day, I stood with colleagues and friends at the LNG Canada marine terminal in Kitimat, in the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation, and watched with pride as the ocean carrier GasLog Glasgow departed with the first load of liquefied natural gas produced at our brand new, state-of-the art facility. This first cargo, destined for markets overseas, was a momentous occasion for our company and our five joint venture participants, local communities and First Nations. And indeed, for British Columbia and Canada. It represented the launch of a new industry in Canada, one that has already provided tens of thousands of jobs for individuals from coast to coast to coast, myriad training and employment opportunities for young workers, economic and social benefits for people and new revenues for governments. In my current and previous roles at LNG Canada, I've been fortunate to see first-hand our project's positive impacts on local businesses, public infrastructure, hospitals, schools, non-profit organizations. As someone whose career began with an apprenticeship at the age of 16, I'm especially pleased that our direct contributions to date include more than $10 million to workforce development initiatives, and another $13 million to community investments. Meanwhile, the cumulative value of LNG Canada's contracts and subcontracts to local, Indigenous and other businesses in B.C. is already approaching $6 billion. We're honoured to be at the forefront of this new industry in Canada. Of course, it hasn't always been easy. As many observers have noted, Canada's LNG opportunity might have come sooner. As an emerging industry, we've encountered numerous challenges, including periods of regulatory uncertainty. Other factors, including our country's vast geography and rugged terrain, have been met with innovation, grit and determination. The Coastal GasLink pipeline that delivers Canadian natural gas to our facility, for example, is 670 kilometres long, and was built across two mountain ranges, across difficult river crossings, over impossibly steep slopes and through avalanche territory. A showcase in collaboration, Coastal GasLink will also transport gas to our neighbours at Cedar LNG, a Haisla-led and majority-owned LNG project now under development just down the road from us. Standing on the jetty last week, watching the first cargo leave, I was reminded that LNG Canada was barely a year into construction when suddenly faced with an unprecedented global pandemic that stretched supply chains, impacted workers and tested capacities. LNG Canada and its valued contractors persevered as a team, and got the job done as a team, safely. Let's be clear: Whatever challenges we have faced or may face in the future, we should not forget the natural advantages we enjoy here in Canada. Designed to produce 14 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in its initial phase, LNG Canada benefits greatly from our access to abundant, low-cost natural gas from British Columbia's vast resources; a cool northern climate that optimizes production; a deep water harbour that is ice-free all year; and a shipping distance to markets in Asia that is 50 per cent shorter than from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and avoids the Panama Canal. Add to this a highly skilled and growing workforce, and an innovative plant design that incorporates aero-derivative gas turbines and receives auxiliary electric power from BC Hydro, and we have a recipe for success. Our day has arrived, and in many respects, the timing could not be better. The world is hungry for reliable supplies of high quality, responsibly-produced lower carbon energy. Countries around the world want to decarbonize their economies, and they are looking to LNG to help them in their transition. Canada is a respected and stable exporting nation, a good trading partner and a strong alternative to countries with less predictable leadership. From a Canadian perspective, our nascent LNG industry adds much needed diversity to our export markets. We are also demonstrating — again at a time when it's really needed — that British Columbians and Canadians are capable of building big things. And we're capable of doing even more, with more LNG projects in B.C. on the way, and with LNG Canada's Phase 2 expansion that's now under consideration. We see an opportunity to build on our early Phase 1 successes and the benefits it's already providing First Nations, communities, British Columbians and Canadians. Phase 2 would potentially double our production capacity to 28 mtpa, making LNG Canada one of the world's largest LNG export facilities by volume. A final investment decision will take into account factors such as overall competitiveness, affordability, pace, future greenhouse gas emissions and stakeholder needs. Our goal is to continue to design, build and operate a world-class facility at scale. With this trajectory and in continued collaboration with industry colleagues, governments, Canadian crafts and trades, local communities and First Nations, Canada has an exceptionally strong opportunity to become a top-five LNG exporting country. And that would go a long way to help Canada achieve an even more ambitious but attainable goal: to become a world energy superpower. Chris Cooper is chief executive of is LNG Canada Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
