VICTORIA — Premier David Eby went all in this week in support of the Nisga’a Nation-backed LNG project, discounting concerns about the impact on the environment and neighbouring Indigenous nations.
The premier’s endorsement emphasized the Ksi Lisims project’s connection to the Indigenous nation that secured B.C.’s first modern-day treaty under the 1990s NDP government.
“The Nisga’a, they are treaty people, they’ve identified this project as a priority,” said Eby, who shared the platform Tuesday with Nisga’a president Eva Clayton.
“That is meaningful for our government and it means that we’re going to stand with the Nisga’a for their agenda, for their people moving forward.”
The project will provide 800 jobs during construction, maintain more than 200 after the anticipated opening in 2029, and deliver a $17 billion boost to the Canadian economy over 30 years.
“All of that context is to help explain why I’m so thrilled for the Nisga’a people,” said Eby.
One of the first asks from a reporter was about the neighbouring Indigenous nations that have withheld consent for the project. Was the premier putting the drive for LNG ahead of the rights of First Nations opposed to the project?
“Absolutely not,” he insisted. “We need to work in partnership with those nations however possible, to accommodate those concerns, to address those interests, and to assist them in moving forward.”
The Nisga’a themselves would work to persuade their neighbours of the benefits of going along.
“I have great faith in President Clayton and her team and the open spirit of engagement that they’ve committed to with their neighbours to be able to deliver that,” said Eby.
The premier’s stance underscored how far the New Democrats have moved on this issue.
One of the Indigenous nations withholding holding consent on the Nisga’a project is the Lax Kw’alaams. In the last decade, they were also a holdout on an LNG project proposed by Malaysia-based Petronas.
The New Democrats, then in Opposition, sided with the Lax Kw’alaams. Petronas killed the project shortly after the NDP took office under Premier John Horgan in 2017.
The Horgan-led New Democrats did clear the way for construction by Shell and its partners of the LNG Canada project in Kitimat.
Today, the Eby-led government stops short of suggesting that opposing Indigenous nations have a veto over Ksi Lisims LNG.
The NDP’s sometime supporters the Greens this week denounced the Nisga’a project as “30 megatonne carbon bomb.”
Eby pushed back, maintaining that the preconditions laid down by the province’s independent environmental assessment office, would “ensure that the project is delivered in a way that minimizes harm to the environment.”
Moreover, thanks to the use of B.C.’s clean electricity, Ksi Lisims will deliver “some of the cleanest low carbon LNG anywhere in the world.”
He reminded his critics of a rival proposal, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, to build a less clean LNG terminal on the Alaska coast.
“We are not going to stand by and let this opportunity pass us and watch, literally just down the road, the Americans build a giant plant to lower standards, without the protections that B.C. offers, and deprive local First Nations, local communities, British Columbians, and Canadians of $17 billion in benefits.”
Was the premier concerned that a partner in the Nisga’a project, Western LNG, has ties to Donald Trump and Wall Street equity firms?
“Not at all,” said Eby. “If you want to invest in B.C., you want to build here, you want to create jobs here, we welcome you. Regardless of their political affiliation, those investors could invest anywhere. They’ve decided to bring their money here.”
Not the traditional NDP view of foreign investment. But the premier was echoing what he said last week in welcoming the proposed merger between mining companies Teck and giant Anglo-American, on grounds that the combined venture is to be headquartered in B.C.
“You need to access international investment,” said Eby, who was presiding at the launch of a $2 billion expansion of Teck’s Highland Valley copper mine.
“We have the best of both worlds, a perpetual commitment that the operating mind of this company will be functionally focused on B.C. As well it will have access to international capital markets to fund the absolutely massive projects and the opportunity that’s happening here.”
Besides, says Eby, “we have to move on these projects.”
“They are on fixed timelines. When we see the president of the U.S. saying he’s going to build a gas-fired LNG plant using high carbon LNG out of Alaska to serve the same markets that we intend to serve, we know that this window is limited.”
For all the premier’s sense of urgency, Ksi Lisims still has to clear some hurdles. In addition to the Indigenous nations withholding consent for the LNG terminal, others oppose the pipeline that would feed supplies of natural gas to the project from northeast B.C.
But as Nisga’a president Clayton said this week, the Eby government’s support is a major step toward reconciliation for a nation that has had more than a few setbacks on that road over the decades.
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