Prince Rupert gas line has applied to extend approval granted a decade ago.
Nicholas Gottlieb YesterdayThe Tyee
Nick Gottlieb is a writer and a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, as well as the author of Sacred Headwaters.
The Tyee: The proponents of the 900-kilometre Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line have applied to the provincial Environmental Assessment Office in an effort to avoid a new environmental review, according to sources who spoke with The Tyee.
They are seeking a “substantially started determination” for the project, which would extend its 10-year-old environmental approval certificate.
The certificate, first issued in 2014, expires Monday. If they are granted the substantially started determination, the certificate will be extended indefinitely.
If not, the project will have to go through a new environmental assessment process under modern environmental laws before moving forward.
The pipeline was originally to run from Hudson’s Hope in northeastern B.C. to Lelu Island near Prince Rupert. But the proponents now want it to run to Pearse Island, north of the city, to provide gas to the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG plant.
The 2018 Environmental Assessment Act does not define what “substantially started” means, but the EAO has a “Substantial Start Determination Policy” that sets out the factors decision-makers must take into account.
The policy, formulated based on a series of court rulings, calls for a focus on “physical activities affecting the land environmentally, as contrasted with bureaucratic activities” in making the decision.
The policy also requires the EAO to consult with Indigenous nations impacted by the project, “seeking their views with regards to whether the project is substantially started.”
According to the act, the ultimate authority to make the determination falls on the minister, but it can be delegated within the EAO. The Kerr-Sulpherets-Mitchell project, a proposed gold mine that would be built about 150 kilometres north of Prince Rupert, was granted its substantially started determination in July of this year. The decision-making process for that project took six months.
The Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line’s substantial start application has not been posted to the EAO’s website yet, but The Tyee obtained a draft of the application dated Oct. 28.
Much of the application focuses on the amount of money spent over the project’s life, dating back as early as 2012, two years before its certificate was issued. It outlines the “pre-2024 Work Programs” that “represent investment, commitment and intention to construct and operate the project.”
The project began construction work only on Aug. 24, and this work was limited to a section of the pipeline referred to as 5B, situated entirely within Nisga’a Lands.
The project is a joint venture between Texas-based Western LNG and the Nisga’a Nation.
The work conducted under the pipeline’s construction program includes, according to the application, clearing 42 kilometres of pipeline right-of-way, building or rebuilding nine bridges, improving 47 kilometres of roads and building a work camp that can house 216 people.
The total length of the pipeline is 900 kilometres, meaning the right-of-way cleared represents just 4.6 per cent of the project’s total length. The proponents have applied for permit amendments that would reduce the length to 750 kilometres.
Kai Nagata, the communications director of Dogwood BC, which has been monitoring the work area, said construction crews have cleared the right-of-way to an average width of 25 metres, but construction will ultimately require it to be cleared to twice that width.
PRGT reports that roughly 98,000 work hours have been spent on construction since it began three months ago.
Much of the proponents’ application highlights the amount of money invested in the project, which the EAO’s policy indicates should not be considered as the primary factor.
PRGT reports having spent $584 million on the project since 2013, but doesn’t say how much of that was spent prior to the issuance of the certificate in November 2014.
The largest line item listed in the application is $336 million for “Project Management and Construction.”
The only dollar values given that refer specifically to this year’s construction milestones — road work and right-of-way clearing — total $70 million.
The EAO policy requires it to consult with affected Indigenous nations on whether the project has been substantially started.
According to the application, PRGT has communicated in advance with nations, but the draft seen by The Tyee did not include any information about the nations’ responses. PRGT claims it has signed agreements with 15 of 20 nations along the right-of-way, but many of these agreements date back more than 10 years.
The Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs argue that the agreement they signed with TC Energy, the previous owner of the pipeline, in 2014 should no longer be considered valid.
Tara Marsden, the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs sustainability co-ordinator, told The Tyee, “according to our review of the policy and of the jurisprudence, so previous examples that went before the courts, this application definitely does not demonstrate a substantial start for PRGT.”
Marsden also noted that the EAO’s policy, written in 2021, two years after B.C. passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, was itself created without consulting Indigenous nations, despite its “huge implications for Indigenous rights.”
PRGT cannot legally begin construction on most of its route — anywhere other than Section 5 on Nisga’a Lands — until the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG project has received a positive final investment decision due to conditions imposed by the BC Energy Regulator.
Ksi Lisims has yet to receive its environmental certificate from the EAO and has not made any announcements regarding investment prospects. It is opposed by the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation and faces a legal challenge by the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs.
Marsden says that means PRGT has “no legal approval, up-to-date approval, in place to do anything other than the very small amounts of clearing that they did in the Nisga’a core lands… they’re barred from doing anything in over 90 per cent of the route.”
“The word ‘substantial’ should mean something in ‘substantial start.’”
PRGT also faces legal challenges. The Kispiox Band Council, the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition and the Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association have challenged the BC Energy Regulator’s decision to allow construction to begin without a proper cumulative effects assessment having been done.
Shannon McPhail, co-executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, told The Tyee that the pipeline work so far is “less than the bare minimum.”
A New Pipeline Battle Looms for BC
According to the application, PRGT intends to wind down construction work for the winter whether the EAO has made its decision by then or not.
Marsden said that if the EAO extends the approval, Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs “would have to explore our legal options.”
Approving this application when “there is no evidence of a substantial start” would represent a “very dangerous precedent,” Marsden said.
Marsden and McPhail both insisted the new proposed terminal location, the major route amendments and the long period of time that has passed since the project’s original certificate was granted together mean that this is a new project and should require a new environmental assessment certificate.
In a statement Tuesday, PRGT said it’s “proud of the significant progress made on the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project.”
The EAO told The Tyee in a statement Tuesday that it expects “to have an update on the process and timing for the PRGT substantial start determination process later this week.”
Nicholas Gottlieb, The Tyee
Nick Gottlieb is a writer and a graduate student at Simon Fraser University, as well as the author of Sacred Headwaters.
Do you want your news source controlled by billionaires?
Didn’t think so. We don’t either.
We don’t work for a billionaire owner here at The Tyee. We work for you.
And we’re not at the mercy of hedge funds or corporations whose focus is on the next quarterly profit report.
Didn’t think so. We don’t either.
We don’t work for a billionaire owner here at The Tyee. We work for you.
And we’re not at the mercy of hedge funds or corporations whose focus is on the next quarterly profit report.
We’re a nonprofit newsroom that is supported by our readers. We rely on your financial support for our journalism and recognize the importance of earning your trust.
Our mission is to publish original, in-depth journalism that adds to your understanding of your community, and we’re supported in that mission by our volunteer board of directors and around 10,000 paying supporters who we call Tyee Builders.
We don’t endorse politicians and we never will. It doesn’t fit with our mission and we’re not here to transmit the political wishes of a powerful owner.
Together with our readers, we’ve expanded our team of journalists, expanded our reach, and are showing a path forward for reader-funded journalism in Canada.
The billionaires have their media empires.
Please help us prove a different media model can succeed.
Help The Tyee grow and thrive as a news outlet that works for you by becoming a supporter today.
— Paul Willcocks, senior editor