A year ago, in November of 2021, RCMP conducted military-style raids on Wet’suwet’en territory, arresting matriarchs, land defenders and journalists.
The federal police force continues to spend millions — more than $25 million and counting, to be exact — enforcing Coastal GasLink’s injunction.
The pipeline is more than 75 per cent of the way towards completion — but is it even economically viable? That’s the question northwest B.C. reporter Matt Simmons probes in his latest piece, which examines both Coastal GasLink and the project that it is set to feed, LNG Canada.
B.C. has committed more than $6 billion to the two projects through a mix of subsidies, investments and agreements with First Nations. And it says this financing will pay off to the tune of $23 billion in government coffers over 40 years.
When you break this figure down, it works out to $575 million per year. It can be easy to point to the current global energy crisis, spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and say that there is plenty of demand to warrant B.C.’s investment. But what will demand for LNG Canada look like five or 10 years after it gets up and running in 2025, as countries move forward on net-zero emissions pledges? “That is an increasingly uncertain proposition,” one energy economics analyst told Matt.
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Meanwhile, on Wet’suwet’en territory, tensions are as high as ever: just this month, Coastal GasLink security workers told Hereditary Chief Na’moks he would be arrested if he crossed a gate to monitor a construction site — something he had done numerous times before without a problem.
Matt was also present (listen to his account on The Big Story podcast) and he too was warned not to cross the line, despite the fact that courts have ruled injunctions do not apply to any journalist who is collecting or gathering information without interfering. That ruling, you’ll recall, didn’t stop the RCMP from arresting photojournalist Amber Bracken last November while she was reporting from Wet’suwet’en territory for The Narwhal.
Our reporting on the RCMP, Coastal GasLink and Wet’suwet’en opposition is far from over. Stay tuned for plenty of more accountability work to come.
Take care and run the numbers twice,
Arik Ligeti
Director of audience
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This week in The Narwhal
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Canada is hosting the largest biodiversity conference in the world. Here’s what’s at stake
By Ainslie Cruickshank
Thousands of people will soon converge on Montreal for the United Nations’ biodiversity conference, the world’s big chance to agree on a path forward to save nature — and ourselves.
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Droughts, floods and extreme heat: how Manitoba is grappling with its water woes
By Julia-Simone Rutgers
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How logging left Atlantic Canada’s trees vulnerable to Hurricane Fiona
By Haley Ritchie
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A year after RCMP raids on Wet’suwet’en territory, the Coastal GasLink conflict isn’t going away
By Matt Simmons
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A new generation of citizen scientists welcome Pacific herring back home
By Lauren Kaljur
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What we’re reading
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When you’re trying to figure out if something makes economic sense or not. We’re no experts either, but we’ll ask those who are and let you know what the nerds have to say — tell your friends to sign up so they’re also spared from doing the math.
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