HARD-HAT HORGAN DITCHES DR. NO ROLE

Premier touts investment opportunity on ‘open-for-business’ northwest tour

Hard hats abounded last weekend when Premier John Horgan embarked on a jobs tour of northwestern B.C. that sent key messages to critics and supporters alike.

First stop last Saturday was Kitimat to mark the first anniversary of the state-ofthe-art modernization of the district’s 60-year-old aluminum smelter.

One could write a book about the ins and outs of the project, which was as controversial to start as it was expensive to complete.

The owner, Alcan when the project started, Rio Tinto when it finished, spent years navigating past one obstacle after another — provincial, federal, local, union, environmental, financial — and ended up spending close to $5 billion to bring it home.

But the result is the cleanest and most modern smelter in the world — a hydroelectric-powered producer of low-carbon-emission aluminum in an international market glutted with product from the almost 200 coalfired smelters in China.

“The new Rio Tinto smelter is a great example of how companies can improve conditions for workers and reduce pollution all while improving their bottom line,” said Horgan, via a news release heralding the benefits to a mostly-unionized workforce of 1,000 people.

“Rio Tinto is producing twice as much aluminum with one-third of the electricity and half of the emissions produced by their previous plant. This means they are now producing some of the lowest carbon aluminum in the world, giving them a competitive advantage at a time when consumers are looking for ways to reduce their impact on the climate.”

Nor was there any escaping the symbolic aspect of the premier’s stopover. In last spring’s election, the B.C. Liberals relentlessly portrayed him as “Dr. No,” head of an NDP band of job-killers.

Now here was Horgan, celebrating a project that came online under the Liberals, to generate a photo op of his own hard-hat sporting proclivities.

The more significant message was the one Horgan sent later in the day, when he visited the proposed site of LNG Canada, a $40-billion Royal Dutch Shell-backed project for the export of liquefied natural gas.

Far from indulging the gloomy outlook that has seen investors abandon other like-minded proposals for B.C., Horgan maintained that LNG still has a future in this province.

“We’re optimistic,” he told reporter Corey Callaghan of Terrace-based CFTK-TV after meeting proponents of the Shell proposal and a rival one backed by Chevron.

“They’re optimistic that the market conditions that prevented (earlier projects) from moving forward are starting to shift. In the case of LNG Canada, their Korean, Chinese and Japanese partners are all interested in buying.

“They have significant upstream assets in B.C. I think the synergies might come together for LNG Canada before the others.”

Horgan picked up the theme the following day, when touring a propane export terminal that AltaGas is building at Ridley Island near Prince Rupert. The company is spending half-a-billion dollars on the project, which is scheduled to be up and running in 2019.

For Horgan, the project provides another example of what he characterizes as a promising future for the provincial natural-gas sector. The B.C.-based resource is rich in liquids like propane and butane, generating new opportunities for exports and value-added production.

“It’s good for the people of the northwest. It’s also good for the people of B.C.,” the premier told the TV reporter. “It sends (a) signal to the investment community that we are open for business. We have natural resources in abundance. When you see fluid liquids like propane and butane being exported in large quantities to markets overseas, I believe that’s a kick-start for the LNG sector as well.”

Contrast the premier’s comments with those of his partner-in-power-sharing, B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver. He’s insisted for years that LNG is a “pipe dream” that will never amount to anything in B.C.

Consider, too, the hardline position of those Greens and New Democrats who’ve argued that LNG development should be suffocated in its crib for environmental reasons.

They object to the damage done when the resource is extracted from shale rock by fracking as well as the carbon emissions associated with its production and export.

Now along comes the premier to suggest that the sector may be back in business in a bigger way than ever, via both LNG and subsidiary exports of other fossil fuel products as well.

Granted the New Democrats have provided themselves with some cover by saying they would insist on tougher conditions than did the B.C. Liberals before approving a given LNG project.

But some of those conditions, like support from First Nations, have already been met on the LNG Canada project that Horgan visited on the weekend.

He was joined there by Chief Councillor Crystal Smith of the Haisla Nation, who had words of welcome for both Horgan and LNG: “We look forward to continuing our work with the new provincial government on efforts to bring further job opportunities to the region, in particular the development of an LNG industry which continues to have the support of Haisla Nation Council.”

Other conditions are in play on the LNG file as well. The government is considering whether targets for reducing GhG emissions could be met by using hydroelectric power upstream where the natural gas is extracted and downstream where it is liquefied.

But where in this province could the government hope to find a new and untapped supply of hydroelectric power? Just asking.

When you see fluid liquids like propane and butane being exported in large quantities to markets overseas, I believe that’s a kick-start for the LNG.