Outside of small pleasures and personal adventures, life in British Columbia has offered little that can be celebrated as of late. For proponents of Canadian energy, however, B.C.’s transformation into a major player in oil and gas has been a triumph.
No, vast quantities of fossil fuels are not being extracted from the ground like in Alberta, but the westernmost province has become the great bridge that connects Alberta’s oil and gas to global markets. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities are springing up along B.C.’s coastline, driving technological innovation and unprecedented reconciliation with First Nations.
The recent completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX), which terminates in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, is expected to contribute more to Canada’s economic growth rate than the whole of B.C.’s economy. Being out-hustled by a single, albeit massive, piece of infrastructure is slightly embarrassing for Canada’s Pacific gateway province, but that’s another story.
Simply put, western Canadian energy, which makes up the largest share of the country’s physical exports by a long shot, cannot effectively get anywhere without passing through pipelines in B.C. In addition to TMX, it is a safe bet that the B.C. coast will play host to at least three major LNG facilities when all is said and done.
Importantly, the trio of planned LNG hubs all feature extensive involvement of three First Nations, all of whom will have taken huge steps towards economic independence once the projects are completed. The expansion of LNG projects is a welcome relief for B.C.’s resource economy, which has taken body blow after body blow for decades, with fishing and forestry being among the hardest hit.
Mill closures and layoffs have left tens of thousands of British Columbians without stable jobs and has removed the economic glue that holds many communities together. This crisis in the natural resource sector is especially acute in northern B.C., where two LNG facilities offer a lifeline.
Once fully operational in the town of Kitimat, Cedar LNG will be a floating facility that processes natural gas delivered by the Coastal Gaslink pipeline. The Haisla Nation are the majority owners of Cedar LNG, a worldwide milestone for Indigenous-led industry.
Cedar LNG will also be one of the lowest-emitting LNG facilities in the world, being powered entirely by B.C. Hydro’s renewable energy.
The value of Cedar LNG cannot be understated. Like most northern B.C. communities, the Haisla suffered the full weight of the decline of the province’s traditional natural resource economy in the late 20th century, causing unemployment and poverty to become rampant.
Without the patient labouring of Haisla chief councillors like Ellis Ross and Crystal Smith to turn Cedar LNG into a reality, we would not be witnessing the economic revitalization of Kitimat that’s currently taking place.
This flies in the face of anti-resource environmental activists and their narratives about Indigenous people. Typically, these sorts of people live in Vancouver or Victoria and believe reconciliation can only be achieved through alliances — on their terms, of course — between First Nations and foreign-funded environmental agitators.
On the other hand, Cedar LNG is a project built with terms set by the Haisla to ensure their community will not be left behind, in partnership with the Pembina Pipeline Corporation.
Fortunately, the Haisla are not alone among B.C. First Nations in becoming essential partners in province’s growing network of LNG infrastructure. The Squamish Nation is playing a leading role in Woodfibre LNG, which is being built just outside of Vancouver.
Closer to Kitimat is the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG project near Prince Rupert, which is being developed through a partnership between the Nisga’a Nation and Western LNG. In combination with TMX, these three LNG facilities are the backbone of what is transforming B.C. into a de facto oil and gas province.
B.C. politics are certainly polarized, but the three largest parties have found a rare consensus on LNG. B.C.’s NDP government gave its seal of approval to Cedar LNG, and both the B.C. Conservatives and B.C. United have endorsed the project.
As for the staunchly anti-resource Greens, they are about as effective as a raccoon trying to drive a Hummer when it comes to pushing their agenda. For anti-resource activists, any hopes they had of finding a patron political party to carry out their poverty-spreading agenda have been dashed.
The great economist Harold Innis famously remarked that Canadians were “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” and that still holds true today. There is an unfortunate tendency among many Canadians to be embarrassed by our country’s place as a natural resource giant, as if it’s outdated or “colonial” in nature. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As Rita Trichur argued in the Globe and Mail, the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline should be but the beginning of Canada’s energy aspirations. “Yes, the climate crisis is real. But until renewable energy can completely supplant fossil fuels, Canadian oil is by far the most ethical choice,” she wrote.
The debate over the place of energy in B.C. has been decisively won. With the expansion of LNG and oil infrastructure in the province, there is now no reason why it should not be regarded as an energy powerhouse alongside Alberta.
National Post