National Post (National Edition)
Poilievre promises to revive a $14B Quebec LNG project
Previously quashed by province
• Conservative leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre says that he will revive a natural gas liquefaction project in Quebec that the provincial government quashed last year if he becomes prime minister.
“Quebec is probably the cleanest place on earth in which to liquefy natural gas,” Poilievre said during a press conference in Gatineau, Que., Tuesday.
If he is elected Conservative leader and becomes prime minister, the MP specifically promised that he would reverse the federal government's disapproval of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in the province's Saguenay region that the federal Liberals nixed in February.
GNL Quebec's Énergie Saguenay project promised to build a 780-kilometre natural gas pipeline from northern Ontario to the region north of Quebec City, and then build a transformation plant to liquefy it before loading it onto ships at the city's port. The project was estimated to cost $14 billion.
But Ottawa's rejection of the project came months after the Quebec government first nixed the project seven months earlier, saying it had “more disadvantages than advantages.”
Though the Legault government initially supported Énergie Saguenay, opposition grew increasingly louder and the project's financiers grew increasingly wary while the province's environmental review board analyzed the project.
Ultimately, the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE) decided in a 500-page report that the project's economic benefits did not outweigh its potential negative environmental and social impacts.
Though the project was already technically dead — unless the company presented a new plan that would have to run through the BAPE all over again — the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) released its study on the project months later in which it also quashed the project.
IAAC's February report found that the pipeline and transformation plant was likely to cause “significant adverse environmental effects” to marine mammals as well as local First Nations communities due to an increase in pollutant greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Énergie Saguenay Project underwent a rigorous review that clearly demonstrates that the negative effects the project would have on the environment are in no way justifiable,” Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault said in a statement at the time.
Poilievre said that if he becomes prime minister, he would reverse the federal government's decision on the project and then push the Quebec government to do the same.
“There needs to be a permit from the Quebec government and that won't change. But I will work with the Quebec government to convince them that it is better to produce that energy here in Canada, instead of giving that market to Putin,” he said.
“The choice isn't between natural gas or no natural gas. The choice is between producing that natural gas here in an environmentally friendly way or do we cede it to polluting dictators?” he added.
But it raises the question of how he will succeed in convincing Quebecers to accept the Énergie Saguenay project in order to reduce more polluting natural gas production in countries like Russia.
“This is a global problem. Right? So if we want to solve a global problem, we need to have a global perspective,” Poilievre said with a smirk, indicating he's aware of this challenge.
“If our policies simply increase pollution into the global atmosphere, but from other countries, then we're actually cutting off our nose to spite our face.”
His latest commitment is part of a broader promise by Poilievre's leadership campaign made one month ago to ban all overseas oil imports within five years of being elected prime minister, while also removing government red tape he says hampers the construction of a west-to-east pipeline.
Poilievre also committed Tuesday to review all energy projects blocked by the Trudeau government and approve those that he would then deem safe for the environment.
He promised to continue consultations with First Nations during that process.
Poilievre also lambasted the Trudeau government's track record since it took power in 2015 when it comes to liquefied natural gas projects.
“When Trudeau took office, there were 18 proposals to liquefy natural gas in Canada. Not a single one of them has come to pass. Only one is under construction, and it is still far off completion,” he said. “That means that dirty foreign dictators have more of the market and more Asian coal-fired plants burn and pollute the atmosphere because they cannot be replaced with Canadian natural gas,” he added.