FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BC government sidelines community and environment concerns, greenlights 900-km fracked gas pipeline in controversial “substantial start” decision
VANCOUVER/UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH), AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES — Yesterday, the BC Environmental Assessment Office ruled that the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Pipeline is “substantially started” and can proceed with construction on the remainder of the project. The pipeline will cut across northern B.C. to the West Coast, transporting fracked gas to be exported overseas as liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The government’s decision means that the project can proceed based on a 2014 environmental assessment and the conditions that were imposed on the project at that time. The pipeline’s 11-year-old certificate would otherwise have expired and a new environmental assessment would have been required before any further construction could take place.
Ecojustice lawyers, on behalf of Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association, and Kispiox Band, reviewed the pipeline’s substantial start application and wrote to the Minister of Environment and Parks ahead of the decision, outlining the reasons the project had not been substantially started. Notably, this includes the fact that only five per cent of the pipeline route had been cleared by the certificate’s expiration date. The Minister’s decision does not address many of the issues raised in the letter.
The groups say there is no evidence of a substantial start of this massive pipeline project — instead, after eleven years of inactivity, a small amount of last-minute construction was completed over a three-month period before the certificate’s deadline.
This project continues to be pushed through despite clear opposition from frontline groups.
Kolin Sutherland Wilson, Chief Councillor of Kispiox Band said: “I find it deeply troubling that the Province of British Columbia has declared the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline “substantially started” without any consultation with our community. Kispiox is one of the closest villages to the proposed route, and our members will be the ones living with the long-term impacts. We are not challenging the rightful authority of the Wilps over the territories and we fully respect Gitxsan law and governance, but when decisions of this scale are made without hearing from the families who live nearby, there is a real risk that the health and safety of our community will be overlooked. We are calling on the Province to pause, listen, and reconsider. The people of Kispiox deserve clean water, safe roads, and a say in what happens in the place we call home.”
Jesse Stoeppler, Co-Executive Director of Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition said: “The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline is a massive project that will have immeasurable negative impacts on our land, air, water, and peoples. The B.C. government has made the choice to side with American billionaires financing this project and force this project through without free, prior, and informed consent from Indigenous Nations along the right-of-way and downstream of the route. I can’t fathom why a project that socializes the cost and privatizes the profit is being rammed through after it was near extinct.”
Kathy Clay, President of the Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association (KVCCA) said: “The Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association is dismayed that the NDP government has deemed the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project to be substantially started. In approving this pipeline, Premier Eby, Minister Davidson, and our elected MLAs have betrayed the residents of B.C., choosing to ignore environmental, social, and climate perils while also disregarding the rights and concerns of many Indigenous Peoples along the pipeline’s route. The KVCCA has advocated for the protection of our Valley and northwest B.C. for decades and we will continue to stand with others to do so.”
