A pipeline to nowhere? TC Energy’s bid to keep B.C. project alive frustrates residents in its path
Company sends northwest B.C. landowners letter about extending permits for Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project,...
The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) project is an approved 800-kilometre gas pipeline that will span northern British Columbia from underground shale gas reserves in the province’s northeast to a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the west coast. It will transport natural gas, a powerful greenhouse gas mostly composed of methane.
Approved in 2014, the pipeline project’s environmental assessment certificate will expire in November 2024 — unless the provincial government deems the project to have “substantially started.” That designation is given by B.C.’s environment minister based on the amount of construction completed, financial costs and other factors. If granted, the pipeline’s environmental approval will remain valid indefinitely.
Construction started on Aug. 26, 2024.
Originally owned by TC Energy, the same company that built the controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline, the project was sold in 2024 to the Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government and Texas-based Western LNG.
The Nisg̱a’a government and Western LNG, along with Calgary-based Rockies LNG, are partners in the proposed LNG facility, Ksi Lisims. That project, near the Nass River estuary close to the Alaska border, is currently undergoing an environmental assessment and has not yet been approved by the B.C. government. The pipeline is set to end at Ksi Lisims, via a section of pipeline laid on the sea-floor.
The Nisg̱a’a-led Ksi Lisims facility would be capable of producing up to 12 million tonnes of LNG annually, which would be shipped across the Pacific Ocean, including to Japan and South Korea.
PRGT was originally approved to supply the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG liquefaction and export facility that was to be built on Lelu Island at the mouth of the Skeena River. Indigenous leaders and their allies fought against the proposed project, reoccupying the island to protect juvenile salmon which rely on the estuary. They eventually succeeded in 2017 when the proponent, Petronas, cancelled the project.
The pipeline is opposed by many Indigenous leaders and youth.
Days before construction was set to start on Nisg̱a’a lands, Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs burned a benefits agreement they signed with TC Energy in 2014, closing their territories to all traffic related to the new pipeline and setting up a blockade on a remote road about 170 kilometres north of Terrace, B.C. “They’re not welcome. And as far as we’re concerned, this pipeline needs a new environmental assessment,” Hereditary Chief Gamlakyeltxw Wil Marsden said after shutting down the road in August.
Three groups — Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association, Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition and Kispiox Band Council (representing a Gitxsan Nation village also known as Anspayaxw) — launched a judicial review of the project with the B.C. Supreme Court in late August, seeking an injunction prohibiting further construction until a cumulative effects assessment is conducted for the entirety of the project, a requirement initially specified under BC Energy Regulator permits but later removed to allow construction to start on Nisg̱a’a lands.
Days before work crews gathered to start clearing the pipeline route, youth from the region organized a community event in the Gitxsan community of Gitanmaax to voice their opposition. Drew Harris, a young Wet’suwet’en/Gitxsan, said the youth and future generations were left out of the pipeline conversations.
“I’m scared for my future,” she said.
Company sends northwest B.C. landowners letter about extending permits for Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project,...
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