With most eyes on the recent approval of the proposed Pacific Northwest LNG project, the BC NDP is shifting its focus to the lack of LNG plants in the province.
In a statement released Wednesday, the NDP said Premier Christy Clark’s 2013 campaign promises surrounding LNG jobs were “still empty.”
“Christy Clark promised British Columbians an LNG windfall during the last election. She promised to have one plant up and running a year ago, and five by the end of the decade. She promised 100,000 new jobs and to deposit $100 billion in a prosperity fund. None of that has come true,” said New Democrat Leader John Horgan.
Even with the Pacific Northwest LNG approval, NDP Natural Gas Critic Bruce Ralston knows the project could still fall through. The energy demand isn’t as high as it was when the project was originally proposed and the stakeholders still have to decide whether they’ll invest.
“In present market conditions, other companies operating in the same region like Shell at the Kitimat site said they’re not going forward,” says Ralston.
The Party has been a long time supporter of a BC LNG industry and its potential economic benefits, but Ralston doesn’t want the one industry to come at the expense of another, like fishing, or the environment.
“Particularly being at the mouth of a major salmon river, a wild salmon river, (building on Lelu Island has) been the subject of a lot of concern from First Nations and by environmentalists and by many other citizens and a group of concerned scientists.”
The Trudeau government approved the $36 billion LNG project on Lelu Island Tuesday with 190 conditions.