Premier David Eby said it is “great” to see that two more B.C. projects are being added to the federal “nation-building” list, making it so the province can become an economic driver for Canada.
But he hopes more federal funding will follow.
“We’re happy to do it, but we need to see some of that support come back and be reinvested so that we’re able to create that prosperity for the rest of the country,” Eby said in Langley, shortly after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the new project list in Terrace.
Carney added six projects to his list of five nation-building projects. The new B.C. additions are the North Coast Transmission Line, a proposed electrical line extending across northern B.C., and the Ksi Lisims floating natural gas export terminal north of Prince Rupert.
Carney promised $150 million toward the North Coast Transmission Line — a project with a $6 billion price tag for the first two of three stages.
“The project has been on the federal government’s major project list for about 20 minutes, and I am deeply disappointed that they have not fully funded it already,” Eby quipped in response to a question about the size of the federal financial commitment.
Carney made no funding commitments related to Ksi Lisims, other than to say his budget expands the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s ability to support it and the related gas pipeline.
The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Line would need to be built to bring the gas from northeastern B.C. to be exported through Ksi Lisims.
Eby hopes the money will begin to flow.
“What we expect to flow from this is the real levelling up of our partnership and the availability of the federal public servants, the federal dollars, the federal support to drive these things through the final investment,” Eby said.
Opposition from environmental advocates and First Nations
Beyond direct investment, Eby expects that being on this list means the federal government will provide support on other issues, such as how to work with First Nations to get all these interrelated projects moving forward.
Several nations are opposed to some or all of these projects, and representatives attended the Carney event to protest.
The B.C. Green Party, which has a deal with the NDP to provide limited legislative support, also criticized the addition of these projects, arguing they will not benefit B.C. and will add to greenhouse gas pollution.
Green MLA Jeremy Valeriote called claims to the contrary “greenwashing” in a written statement. He pointed out that Ksi Lisims has U.S. ownership — Texas-based Western LNG — in addition to local part-owners, the Nisga’a Nation.
“Ksi Lisims LNG is a foreign-owned, foreign-built fossil fuel project that will enrich U.S. billionaires while leaving British Columbians to bear the environmental and economic costs,” Valeriote said.
There are now four projects in B.C. on the nation-building list. The first five projects, which were named earlier this year, included LNG Canada Phase 2 and the Red Chris mine.
“British Columbia is going to be the economic engine of this new economy that we’re building going forward, and it is great to see some recognition from Ottawa that this is going to be the case,” Eby said.
All of these projects and the transmission line are linked because mines, gas production and LNG export terminals all require vast amounts of electricity.
A recent investigation by the Narwhal found that Ksi Lisims will require roughly 600 megawatts of power, about the same amount of electricity needed for 250,000 homes.
In total, there are currently 6,962 megawatts worth of industrial connection requests in BC Hydro’s queue — six times the amount of power produced by the Site C Dam. In comparison, there are just 329 megawatts worth of non-industrial requests for things such as homes.
The North Coast Transmission Line will bring power to these types of projects, but the province still needs to produce more power to meet these needs.
BC Hydro has issued two calls for power in the past two years, each of which would provide enough power for 500,000 homes, but only enough for a handful of major projects such as Ksi Lisims.