A RISING TIDE

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: WHY PRINCE RUPERT IS SPLIT OVER SALMON VS. NATURAL GAS.

Flora Bank at low tide with the proposed Pacific Northwest LNG site on Lelu Island in the background, in the Skeena River estuary near Prince Rupert, B.C. Continued from FP1

The location has infuriated environmentalists and First Nations people such as Lawson determined to protect the Flora Bank, where millions of juvenile salmon from the Skeena River acclimate between freshwater and saltwater every year. It has led to a groundswell of environmental activism and legal challenges on the basis of aboriginal title that could prevent the project from being built.

The location has also exposed divisions in Prince Rupert, a city whose population was cut in half when a pulp mill here closed more than a decade ago. Residents are largely in favour of new port development to provide jobs and rejuvenate the city’s boarded-up storefronts, but not at the cost of the region’s salmon fishing industry.

Lelu Island is one of several proposed LNG project sites in the area and it’s also the most contentious. Multiple politicians, protesters and community residents all say they hope Pacific Northwest can strike a deal to move the project because a new location would alleviate environmental concerns and bring most opponents on board.

Until that happens, Lawson said, his supporters will maintain a camp established on Lelu Island 15 months ago and continue turning away Port of Prince Rupert and Pacific Northwest staff trying to land on the shore. “I’ve never done anything like this in my life,” said Lawson, a 60-year-old forestry industry veteran.

Christie Brown, who camps out on the island for months at a time as part of the protest, calls the growing encampment “Lelu Village,” which has grown to include a two-storey cabin, a teepee and other covered structures where tools to continue expanding the camp are kept. She said the village is now a permanent settlement and has refused to leave despite eviction notices from the local port authority, which leased the area to Pacific Northwest.

The Gitwilgyoots and another aboriginal community, the Gitanyow, filed separate federal court actions on October 27 in an attempt to stop Pacific Northwest from breaking ground.

There are three other major LNG facilities proposed for the area — in addition to a container terminal expansion project and a new liquefied propane terminal proposal — though none of them have attracted the same level of entrenched opposition as Pacific Northwest because of its close proximity to the salmon habitat.

“There’s 18 other LNG facilities that have been proposed for the northwest and we haven’t opposed any of them except for this one,” said Greg Knox, executive director of environmental advocacy group Skeena Wild Conservation Trust, which has also filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the LNG project.

“We’ve been asking Pacific Northwest LNG to find a better site for four years now and here we are,” he said.

Similarly, local MP Nathan Cullen said Pacific Northwest “would solve 95 per cent of their problems” if it could relocate the project as little as 400 metres northward to Ridley Island.

He said the project would likely be much closer to breaking ground if it found a new site, and it would likely be able to avoid a multi-year legal challenge.

The problem with moving the project to Ridley is that site is already home to an LNG proposal from BG Group, which Royal Dutch Shell PLC acquired last year.

Shell spokesperson Cameron Yost said the company is still in the process of reviewing its combined portfolio, “including the Prince Rupert LNG project on Ridley Island.” He said the company couldn’t provide details on the project until the process is finalized.

Spencer Sproule, spokesperson for Pacific Northwest, said his company “remains focused on Lelu Island as we undertake a total project review, following approval by the Government of Canada. The project is continuing our work with area First Nations, stakeholders and regulators to minimize any potential impacts through mitigation measures and design optimization.”

Pacific Northwest has attempted to avoid the Flora Bank in its project design by proposing a massive bridge to shipping berths in deeper waters. Brown and Lawson, however, said the proposal still does not adequately said. Brain said the city is still recovering from the closure of a pulp mill more than a decade ago, which caused Prince Rupert’s population to collapse to around 10,000 people from more than 20,000.

New projects, such as the expansion of Dubai-based DP World’s Fairview container terminal and a recently finished wood-pellet export terminal, have allowed the city’s population to recover slightly to 14,000.

The recovery has led some entrepreneurs in the city to open businesses and some of the downtown storefronts that were boarded up in recent years have been renovated and reopened.

“The mill was really a testament to the boom and bust of small towns, when you have one industry that supports the major employment base of a community,” Brain said.

Following the mill’s closure, and the expansion of the container terminal, DP World is currently the city’s largest employer. If multiple LNG projects are built in the area — ExxonMobil Corp. has also proposed an LNG project — the number of people working at those facilities would outnumber the longshoremen and other staff at the container terminal.

As a result, Brain said, the city has tried to welcome proposals from a range of industries in an attempt to diversify its exports, and potentially avoid another disastrous mill — or LNG facility — closure 30 or 40 years in the future. “We’re trying not to be a one-industry town anymore,” he said.

For example, the city has welcomed a cruise-ship dock that has brought tourist traffic to the city, grain export facilities and a $400-million AltaGas Ltd. liquid propane terminal proposal. The propane terminal, in particular, would offset declining coal exports through Ridley Terminals and further diversify the city’s economy.

AltaGas is on pace to make a sanctioning decision on its propane export terminal on Ridley Island before the end of the year, said Dan Woznow, the company’s vice-president of energy exports.

He said AltaGas likes Prince Rupert as an export point because the port offers “10-day travel time to Asia,” which is at least two days faster than any other port on the west coast of North America.

Michael Gurney, a spokesperson for the Port of Prince Rupert, said the port is also trying to prepare for an increase in activity.

If all four LNG projects are built, marine traffic through the area would quadruple to 2,000 vessels per year from 500 vessels.

“For a number of years, we were the fastest-growing container operation in North America,” Gurney said, adding that the port is on pace to overtake Montreal and become the second-busiest container terminal in Canada.

Brain said he’s hopeful the city can grow to accommodate a permanent population of 20,000 — if proposed export projects are sanctioned.

But he leads a city divided over development. It is largely supportive of LNG, but he said the population is hesitant to support a project that could damage the fishing industry in the area and in communities such as Terrace, B.C., upstream along the Skeena River.

MP Cullen said Petronas has a decision to make: fight two aboriginal title challenges in court for years, or strike a deal to move the Pacific Northwest facility to a new site — potentially saving time and money for the company — and build support for the project in a city excited about the prospect of economic growth.