Latest news with #LNG-Québec
CBC
07-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Environmentalists warn against Quebec pipeline revival as politicians push for west-east link
With the threat of U.S. tariffs still looming, the Quebec government has opened the door to reconsidering a controversial pipeline project transporting natural gas from Western Canada to the province, where it would be liquefied and shipped overseas. The LNG-Québec project, planned for the Saguenay area, north of Quebec City, was scrapped in 2021 due to the pipeline's environmental risks — and strong public opposition. Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette said this week the government would consider looking at the project again. "We're not opposed to energy projects that respect the environmental criteria," he said. It marked a major shift for the Coalition Avenir Québec government, but one that shouldn't come as a surprise, given the changed political context, said Mark Purdon, a business school professor and holder of the decarbonization chair at the Université du Québec à Montréal. "I really think it's politics. I don't think what is driving the renewal of GNL-Québec is the economic opportunity," Purdon told CBC News. The fundamentals of the project haven't changed, and neither have the environmental concerns, he said. The proposed project included a 780-kilometre natural gas pipeline from northern Ontario to Saguenay and a terminal to liquefy the gas in Saguenay and load it onto tankers. It faced stiff opposition due to its environmental impacts, including threats to beluga whales and broader concerns over increased greenhouse gas emissions. Proponents of natural gas contend it is cleaner and lower in emissions than oil and coal, though its production and transportation can release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. One recent peer-reviewed study found that due to methane leakage, the greenhouse gas footprint from exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) could equal or even exceed that of coal. 'Not the solutions we are looking for' Charles-Édouard Têtu, climate policy analyst at the environmental group Équiterre, said in an interview the province should prioritize clean energy projects rather than fossil fuels. "These are not the solutions we are looking for and they would not answer the needs of Canadians and Quebecers at the moment," he said. He questioned, as well, whether the demand would be there when such a project is finally completed, given the shifting situation in Europe. WATCH | Stalled pipeline project through Quebec reconsidered: Previously shelved pipeline projects that pass through Quebec are getting a second look 7 hours ago Duration 2:15 The threat of U.S. tariffs have prompted the Quebec government to reconsider the LNG-Québec project, which was scrapped in 2021, while there's renewed discussion federally about an oil pipeline project from Alberta to New Brunswick. A pipeline that runs from Ontario through Quebec to Saguenay would also require approval from First Nations. Lucien Wabanonick, chief of the Anishinaabe council of Lac Simon, said First Nations would be open to listening to proposals — but would need to be consulted. "You need to have that discussion," he said. The federal government, meanwhile, has also suggested that provinces should consider more co-operation given the changes south of the border. Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal Natural Resources Minister, said Thursday that Trump's threatened tariffs exposed a "vulnerability" in energy infrastructure. Wilkinson said some parts of Canada, namely Ontario and Quebec, are dependent on oil pipelines that move through the U.S. to meet their needs — and there has to be some hard conversations about whether that's sustainable given what may transpire during a possible Trump trade war and beyond. Earlier this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly suggested LNG-Québec could play a role in getting Canada's oil and gas to new markets overseas. "We currently have a vulnerability with respect to the United States for our oil and our gas," she said.
CBC
05-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Looking to diversify its exports, Quebec willing to rethink natural gas pipeline project
Social Sharing The threat of tariffs and lingering economic volatility has prompted the Quebec government to reconsider a pipeline project bringing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Western Canada to the province before shipping it overseas. Quebec nixed the project, known as LNG-Québec, in 2021, for environmental reasons. But now, with economic uncertainty surrounding the province's relationship with the U.S., its largest trading partner, Quebec's environment minister said the government is interested in taking another look at it. "We're not opposed to energy products that respect the environmental criteria," Benoit Charette, the environment minister, told reporters at the National Assembly on Wednesday. Charette cautioned that the project would have to respond to the previous concerns raised by Quebec's public consultation bureau, the BAPE, which played a role in the project's refusal. The Legault government had initially supported the project. It had hoped the project would diversify the economy in the Saguenay area, north of Quebec City, a region largely dependent on the aluminum and forestry industries. But it had axed it after concluding that the project's environmental risks outweighed the gains and that Quebecers didn't want a pipeline. The project proposed building a 780-kilometre natural gas pipeline from northern Ontario to Saguenay and a separate project to build a plant to liquefy the gas in Saguenay and load it onto tankers. The BAPE had concluded that the increased tanker traffic along the Saguenay River would pose a risk to vulnerable beluga whale populations and would lead to a spike in greenhouse gas emissions. "If it's the same project with the same specs, the decision will be the same," Charette said. "We recall the decision of the BAPE, we recall the decision of the Ministry of the Environment. If we respond to those concerns today, it's a project that could be accepted. Projects are studied based on their merits." Quebec Premier François Legault said Tuesday the province needs to diversify its exports in the face of U.S. economic hostility. Speaking at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal on Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly suggested LNG-Québec could play a role in getting Canada's oil and gas to new markets overseas, like Europe. "We currently have a vulnerability with respect to the United States for our oil and our gas," she said. "Canada has essentially one client. For Alberta oil, 98 per cent of the oil goes to the U.S. but we don't currently have pipelines that cross Canada to come to Quebec." Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre has said he would approve LNG-Québec to respond to the threat of American tariffs. "We can sell something 200 per cent or 300 per cent higher in Europe if we export overseas instead of giving all our gas to the Americans and letting them have all the profit. What we're doing is ridiculous," he told Radio-Canada in January. 'Questions are still there' says PQ Though the Quebec government withdrew its support for the project in 2021, the federal government also refused to approve it in 2022. Some of Quebec's provincial political parties reacted with apprehension to the idea of a natural gas pipeline. Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis said it would have to be up to Quebec to decide if a pipeline was a good idea. "It's not Mélanie Joly and it's not the Conservative Party of Canada to decide for Quebecers when it comes to that project," he said. "We had a big debate on that project already and it wasn't determined that it was in Quebec's economic interests at the time and there was a problem with social acceptability. Those two questions are still there." When Quebec announced it was scrapping the project in 2021, Charette had acknowledged that the government's decision angered people in Western Canada. The project would have provided an additional export market for natural gas from hydraulic fracking operations in British Columbia and Alberta.
