Protesters stop work at TC Energy’s B.C. pipeline

Work on TC Energy Corp.’s Coastal GasLink pipeline has been hampered by protesters who blocked access to a construction site in western British Columbia, threatening further delays to the natural gas conduit.

Coastal GasLink crews are being prevented from accessing a work area near the Morice River, an area that includes “several pieces” of heavy equipment staged for clearing and site preparation activities, Calgarybased TC Energy said.

The access road to a drill site on the river was destroyed and blockades have been erected “to stop the drilling under the sacred headwaters that nourish the Wet’suwet’en Yintah and all those within its catchment area,” the Indigenous Environmental Network said in a news release, adding that there had been one arrest.

The latest flare-up of protests is another snag in a project that’s already behind schedule. The pipeline will supply natural gas to the future LNG Canada site in Kitimat, B.C., billed as the largest private-sector investment in Canada’s history.