“Let’s do this”: Northern B.C. resource sector focused on building businesses, communities through responsible development
‘THERE IS FAR TOO MUCH AT STAKE FOR LNG CANADA NOT TO STAND UP FOR THE FIRST NATIONS THAT SUPPORT LNG DEVELOPMENT AND THE MORE THAN 15,000 MEMBERS THEY REPRESENT.’
If one message united the delegates to the British Columbia Natural Resources Forum in Prince George, B.C. it was this: if there’s a natural resource project that meets the province’s stringent environmental regulations and receives approval of local stakeholders, we will make it happen. More than important opportunities, these projects are the lifeblood of the province, northern B.C. communities and First Nations, creating the wealth and government revenues that pay for hospitals, schools and infrastructure all across British Columbia. At the same time, they provide northern citizens with a reason to remain in the communities where they were born.
First Nations representatives journeyed to Prince George to reiterate their support for both the Coastal GasLink pipeline and the LNG Canada liquefaction facility in Kitimat. Crystal Smith, Elected Chief Councillor for Haisla First Nation, addressed delegates to erase any doubt that the projects had earned broad support among First Nations. Band members and both Elected and Hereditary Chiefs stood alongside her.
“Haisla and 19 elected bands across the Coastal GasLink pipeline route have concluded that the project meets the requirements that we as First Nations have put forward,” she said. “This has been a historic achievement to see this level of commitment from so many Nations. The Haisla have said ‘yes’ to these projects because we have concluded that they will be built responsibly for our environment and will allow our people to flourish.”
The Haisla are also one of five Nations at the liquefaction facility or located along the shipping route that have signed Impact Benefit Agreements with LNG Canada.
Smith sees these projects as essential to providing First Nations with other benefits, from housing, education and medical care to counselling — and the support of cultures and traditions.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have our community members come home and provide for their families,” she said. “We need to support this project to bring our community and our cultures and our language back to our people.”
LNG Canada invested years working with First Nations to ensure that the project met the social and economic needs of those who could benefit.
“We were fortunate that the Haisla First Nation was open to LNG development and so willing to share their traditional knowledge and experience,” said Andy Calitz, CEO of LNG Canada in a keynote address. “We spent years studying how our project could co-exist with the natural environment — air, land and water. We designed our facility to have the lowest CO2 emissions of any large-scale LNG export facility operating in the world today. We learned that many First Nations were tired of managing poverty. Our project, they told us, could change that, and instead, provide the opportunity to manage prosperity.”
Claude Morven, a Councillor with Nisga’a Lims First Nation, is geographically removed from both construction projects, but he remains enthusiastic about the potential for spillover economic effects. Traditional work opportunities in logging and fishing have faltered in his community.
“Haisla has a good deal for the LNG Canada project and the work it will bring to their territory,” he says. “We’re also hard workers. Haisla will have the first chance to find work, but as a designated local band, we’re hopeful to fill any jobs that Haisla can’t.”
Zane Pickering, Indigenous owner of Falcon Camp Services and Falcon Contracting in Prince George, has already benefited from contracts providing 1,800 camp beds along the Coastal GasLink corridor and contracts to clear pipeline sites. He’s waiting to begin work on other signed contracts so he can employ as many as 150 workers.
“The LNG Canada project means everything to us and to our workers,” he says. “The long-term, steady work generated by the project will uplift their families and give them a sense of pride. Everyone’s looking forward to getting to work. After years of working everywhere in the province, it will be good to be working closer to home.”
Dozens of local people braved the cold weather outside the forum to attend a citizen’s rally in support of LNG. Signs they carried indicated that development would not only bring employment, but schools, hospitals and other benefits. Landon Young, a welder with industrial mechanical contractor Tyrod Industries gave up his lunch hour to attend. He states it simply: “Projects like LNG Canada bring jobs to construction companies and welders, not only today but for a generation.”
Colin Hamilton is Northern B.C. regional director of Western Canadabased Environmental Dynamics Inc., an environmental risk consulting service and forum sponsor. “LNG is very important to the province’s economy and our business,” says Hamilton, who operates out of Prince George. “All across B.C. we employ local people who live here with their families. They’re the Scout and Girl Guide leaders, the ski and soccer coaches. When a company like LNG Canada develops a project, it allows them to deepen their roots and their commitments to their communities.”
Canadian-owned AGAT Laboratories, a science and laboratory service, employs 65 people in B.C. alone. Tim Giesbrecht, managing director for the province, works in Burnaby. Other employees live and work in Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and Terrace. “When there’s an active drilling program in Northern B.C., our testing services benefit,” he says. “We’ve worked on LNG projects with upstream producers to fine tune their gas composition and to determine how that composition will affect the design of an LNG facility. When the resource sector is busy, we’re busy.”
According to Calitz, “There is far too much at stake for LNG Canada not to stand up for the First Nations that support LNG development and the more than 15,000 members they represent; for B.C.’s northern communities; for the 10,000 people that will help construct the LNG Canada facility and Coastal GasLink pipeline; and for the majority of British Columbians that want and need LNG Canada to proceed,”
“Regardless of headlines and protests, LNG Canada has every intention to complete our project,” he said. “We have every intention to maintain our construction schedule. We have every intention to deliver the jobs and economic benefits we committed for First Nations, for local residents and skilled tradespeople across all northern communities, and for British Columbians and Canadians.”