NDP Oppose Pacific NorthWest LNG
Prince George, B.C. – The provincial NDP has officially expressed its opposition to the $30 billion Pacific NorthWest LNG proposal.
It did so in a letter dated March 10, 2016 to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
In it, leader John Horgan and Environment critic George Heyman base the party’s opposition out of a “concern for First Nations objections based on the risk to the future of salmon in the area and the Skeena River salmon ecosystem.”
Horgan and Heyman add the proposal “also fails to meet the condition of air, land and water protection, with respect to both the threat to marine habitat and species as well as to climate through unacceptable high and inadequately regulated greenhouse gas emission.”
They continue “until and unless these deficiencies are addressed, we urge you to withhold final recommendation for approval.”
The federal government is expected to make its final decision within the next 90 days.
Pacific NorthWest LNG is proposing to construct and operate an LNG facility and marine terminal near Prince Rupert, within the District of Port Edward.
The facility would be located on Lelu Island and would convert natural gas to LNG for export to Pacific Rim markets in Asia.
If given the go ahead it could result in as many as 4,500 jobs during peak construction and another 330 long-term positions.
Comments
Obviously they care not for the working men and women of this province who would do so well with a construction job such as this.
Great, Altagas Ltd. Shelves its Douglas Channel LNG plans amid a global surplus of liquid natural gas AND more than 130 scientists have signed a letter to federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, asking her to reject a “scientifically flawed” report into Pacific NorthWest LNG.
LNG is nothing but Christy’s fantasy pipe dream, this whole project will not move ahead based on the above two reasons, but now that the NDP has come out against it, the same old crowd will use them as the whipping boy… typical. The old “why didn’t the LNG dream materialize for BC” question will be answered for years to come with the following response from the right; “because the NDP were against it”. This would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.
ht tp://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/altagas-ltd-shelves-douglas-channel-lng-plans-amid-global-surplus
www .theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/scientists-urge-catherine-mckenna-to-reject-pacific-northwest-lng-report/article29093139/
There are about 12- 18 LNG plants proposed for BC.
Out of that number maybe 2-3 will be built.
The oil market tanks, affecting the cash flow of the corporations
and government.
One must remember that these plants are not built over night.
You must look at a 6-8 year to build and supply.
The corporations building these plants look long range.
The next increase for demand of LNG is around 2020-2022.
In regards to the taxation of this industry, the government of
BC & Canada had to develop whole new tax process for this
industry since we never had before.
The PETRONAS is on hold until the end of June, while the Fed’s
review the environmental studies.
NDP do not like progress.
NDP don’t like private industry.
Neither do Conservatives. Look at the dinosaurs constantly posting about how all alternative energy sources are a scam because burning their ancestors is the only way to go.
I would take the job numbers with a grain of salt. Canadian Bechtel was awarded this contract in 2013 along with some Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, companies. These people build LNG plants all around the world, and I would think that they have a large number of people already on staff, that would be available to build.
In any event we will have to wait to see if it is approved, and then see how many actual jobs is produces.
People are entitled to their opinions, and you certainly cannot argue the fact that LNG plants are big polluters, nor can you ingnore the risk to the salmon.
Its kind of stupid when you consider that we will entail all the pollution in BC to export LNG to China, to reduce pollution. In fact there will be a net increase in pollution on any LNG exports.
A big polluter??? I’m puzzled. I’ve never heard that LNG is a big polluter before. I would have thought that would have been a major part of all the news stories over the past several years if true.
If Natural gas is a big polluter we need to build a dam asap
Jobs aside, the province get’s revenue from the royalties on the gas. One small problem I see, is the provincial debt may have to be paid back some day, and I was wondering what we were going to pay it back with? If we aren’t going to do resource extraction because it pollutes, and offends first nations, just what are we going to do to generate the money to pay back the debt? Tourism, motion pictures? I mean, aren’t the NDP are against Site C as well – so no hydro power to sell. I’d like to see the NDP wealth creation plan that continues to give British Columbians similar access to Healthcare, Education, and other services, and eventually pays back what we owe. I don’t think it can be done, without selling resources, because pretty much everything we could do non resource based, someone can do in another country cheaper.
And I’d like the FN people explain to us how we can continue to fund our treaty obligations – which according to them are much more than what we are paying – without extracting resources? Do they understand, we go broke, they go broke.
Have you seen what natural gas royalties have done under the Christy Clark government? Have you been paying attention to the sweet heart tax regime that’s been given to PETRONAS if they build? The tax/royalty revenue from this plant wont pay off anything any time soon.
If it was only natural gas, I would agree with you. But the NDP and FN are against more than just natural gas – it seems they’re against almost all resource extraction. That’s the main point of my comment.
The fact remains this LNG pipedream simply isn’t feasible….
Christy Clark’s plan of cutting sweetheart tax deals so it is for the PETRONAS’s of the world does not make it more so…
LNG just isn’t going to make it in BC without the BC taxpayer funding the whole thing…..Could you explain to me ski51, how that BC Liberal wealth plan is going to pay for Healthcare, Education, and other services?
Sometimes bad ideas happen….it is time BC faced up to it and cut our loses on this farce of a plan from the BC Liberals.
Actually, the taxpayer isn’t funding the whole thing, at least, not the current taxpayers. It’s future taxpayer’s that are funding it because we still spend more than we bring in taxes. Now, if the Liberals plan is bad, the NDP – don’t cut down a tree, don’t dig a hole in the ground, don’t, don’t, don’t, isn’t going to be any better.
Frankly, any government that would do this responsibly, is not electable because everyone wants every program fully funded but they don’t want it done by raising taxes, they want it done by borrowing and saddling the future generation with the problem.
I mean, if the NDP got in power, and taxed the crap out of the corporations and 1%, it wouldn’t matter, because without resources for them to extract, they would have no income to tax anyway. And without those primary industries, eventually, we’d all find ourselves wondering where our next cheque is coming from.
Here’s a sobering thought, all those pensions we’re all relying on, are based on the concept a future generation will share their production with us. What if there’s nothing for them to work with, or they are so saddled with debt they have nothing to share.
I’m actually all for leaving the natural gas in the ground. It’s not going anywhere, and we might need it in the future.
The taxpayer won’t fund any of the LNG projects, it’s all private money. They get a break on royalties but they’ll still spend their own $billions building the system.
I think,
like it or not,
the BC Liberals will ram through the LNG pipeline just like they have the site C dam…
could they be paying off friends for prior votes and and prepaying friends for future ones?
my opinion, yes on both counts..
Now, I don’t know everything about everything!
So Fate and Taxed, you do seem to know everything about everything!
(Considering Ski’s comments,) can you tell me, perhaps educate me, as to where we are going to get all the money to pay for all those things we expect from government without the sale of our resources???
they are basically giving the shat away…so yes where is all the money going to come from??
They aren’t giving anything away. Check how much stumpage money rolls into government coffers, not to mention auctions for drilling rights, payroll taxes, profit taxes, permits, fees, licenses that are all part of their operating costs.
According to the article, the words from the NDP are:
“….until and unless these deficiencies are addressed, we urge you to withhold final recommendation for approval.”
Then I look back at the headline:
“NDP Oppose Pacific NorthWest LNG”
The two do not mean the same. They are inconsistent.
The dominant comments were about the headline, not about the condition that the NDP and likely the same or similar conditions many others of various political stripes would agree need to be addressed prior to approval. In my opinion, any other decision would be unreasonable.
ceaa.gc.ca/050/details-eng.cfm?evaluation=80032
The above Pacific NorthWest LNG Project site has 7,152 comments received and responses posted for public view.
The most recent letter is from Mayor John Helin of the Lax Kw’alaams Band
The letter states in part:
“Lax Kw’alaams understands you will now make a decision on the outcome of the assessment process. If that decision is to approve the potential development of the Project (subject to proposed conditions), we will support that decision ONLY if the attached legally binding conditions form part of the Environmental Assessment Decision Statement.
“The detailed terms of reference for the Environmental Performance Committee referenced in Attachment 1 to this letter must be to the satisfaction of the Lax Kw’alaams. We would be pleased to negotiate such terms of reference immediately, with the goal of concluding same by May 13,2016. If this condition is not met by this deadline, we will retract our support for the Project.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were more people who would understand how these processes work and that opposition is normal as in any negotiation process.
I find it funny that now, they decide to speak out about it. I guess they figure they have to get on board with the loudest voices to somehow prove their legitimacy.
Let’s put it this way.. The NDP doesn’t care about anything north of Kelowna/Kamloops regardless if they come to or live in Prince George. They never have and never will and that’s why they haven’t won an election for 16 years! Only fools down south love the NDP. We can hate the Liberals all we want for the crap they’ve pulled but majority of the smart people in this province know the Liberals can do it better than the NDP any day.
This stance by the NDP is a bit surprising. It indicates to me that the party is thinking its base support has shifted from big labour to urban green types. That is probably a strategic political mistake but more importantly, their anti development policies could hurt BC’s ability to attract much needed investment.
Methinks they have just lost two seats in the next election – Prince Rupert, and Skeena.
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