By Christy Clark
Premier of British Columbia 2011-2017
A ship is making an historic journey to British Columbia this week.
The vessel “Gaslog Glasgow” is currently underway in the North Pacific Ocean and will soon arrive at the Port of Kitimat. There, it will take on the first export shipment from LNG Canada’s $40-billion processing and marine shipment facility. It will have well over $100 million in liquefied natural gas (LNG) on board, the final product of a resource value chain that stretches across B.C. and Canada.
This vessel will then pilot out of the Douglas Channel and be underway to a port in Asia. Over the next 25 years, many more ships will carry trillions of cubic feet of natural gas worth hundreds of billions of dollars to markets around the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
From now on, western producers have the option of shipping their gas to Kitimat to be processed and exported as LNG, rather than shipping it to Texas to pay American interests to process it.
When I became B.C. Premier in 2011, LNG processing and shipping on the west coast was considered a far-fetched pipe dream by the folks in Ottawa. But from our perspective, why wouldn’t we want to capture the full value of our own resource in our own province?
The major stumbling blocks were the impossibly long and complicated permitting processes. How would it be possible to approve such a massive piece of resource infrastructure in a timely fashion? And would the private sector commit billions of dollars to a project that could get sidetracked by special interests or shifting market conditions?
I made the decision that LNG processing and export was crucial not just to B.C., but to Canada. If our economy depended on natural resources, as it does, then we had a duty to make sure as much of the value of those resources would stay here to build schools, hospitals and future economic opportunities.
There was one other thing: BC First Nations would have to be true partners in expanding our resource potential. We had learned enough hard lessons about unfairly bypassing First Nations communities for economic development. This time it was going to be different.
The LNG Canada facility is on the traditional land of the Haisla Nation, which has been an enthusiastic and trusted partner in this historic achievement. They have not stopped here. Haisla Nation will be the majority owner in the Cedar LNG project that is currently under construction in Kitimat.
The road to B.C.’s LNG future was a little rocky. Investors dropped out. Environmental lobbyists twisted the facts to whip up opposition. A global pandemic created havoc with supply chain and inflation challenges.
There will always be challenges to establishing large infrastructure, but it was frustrating to also see the United States finish eight LNG export projects in the time it took to get LNG Canada online.
We forged on. This was more than just a policy goal; it was a mission to build a legacy of prosperity, jobs and security shared by cabinet ministers, government officials, First Nations community leaders, town councils, trade unions and investors. All these stakeholders focused intensely on achieving this legacy.
Thanks to the dedication of many true believers, Canada now has a new cornerstone to our economy.
What we did not foresee was a hostile and malicious U.S. President threatening our sovereignty and trade pacts. The Trump regime unintentionally made our LNG industry into a strategic national security asset.
Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that he wanted to make Canada an “energy superpower,” noting the need to speed up the review process and interest in an east-west energy corridor. The Liberal government has taken important steps early on to back up this policy with action.
An energy superpower must be resilient to the moves of its competitors and global market conditions. That means three things: having many different customers; having easy access to long-term supplies; and eliminating the need to process resources abroad.
LNG Canada’s experience offers a blueprint on how to move important energy projects from policy proposals to operational assets. It can be a template to make Canada an energy superpower.
Crucially, we learned that the provincial and federal governments and First Nations need to work to manage impacts and ensure timely permitting processes. It should not be that hard for regulators to leave their egos at the door when analyzing the merits of large energy projects. Let’s agree on one set of rules and one set of data so we can make decisions as quickly as possible.
LNG Canada and future export terminals like it are the assets that Canada needs to become an energy superpower and keep the full value of our resources in our own country. I’m proud that what we started in BC back in 2011 will turn out to be something much bigger for all of Canada.
