Vaughn Palmer: Four projects have provided a major boost to job creation. All four are wrapped up or winding down, raising the question of what will replace them.
VICTORIA — In Terrace earlier this week, B.C. NDP leader David Eby announced a plan to boost economic development and “create thousands of jobs” in Northwest B.C.
The premier’s first campaign foray outside Metro Vancouver took him to a riding, Skeena, next to the Nechako Lakes riding represented by B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad.
“Rustad neglected the northwest, while Eby makes sure communities benefit directly,” said the NDP news release.
Skeena was an NDP seat until it was wrenched away by B.C. Liberal Ellis Ross in 2017.
Eby hopes to win it back, in part by touting the region’s mining potential.
“Northwest B.C. has the critical minerals that are in high demand worldwide, giving us a huge advantage in the global movement to a clean economy,” said Eby.
He is proposing to streamline a mining regulatory regime that the New Democrats maintained and expanded during their seven years in office.
If the NDP leader wanted a more immediate example of what his party has done for jobs and development in the region, he could have travelled to Kitimat, an hour’s drive south of Terrace.
Kitimat is home base for LNG Canada, an export terminal for liquefied natural gas resource, now 95 per cent complete.
The terminal is currently in the start-up phase. They have begun introducing natural gas into the production lines, with intermittent flaring from the giant stack in the middle of the site.
LNG Canada says it is on track to begin loading tankers and shipping to customers in Asia by the middle of next year.
I toured the $40-billion project earlier this year and found it impressive. Moreover, it would not have happened without the New Democrats.
Shell and its partners in LNG Canada had not made a final investment decision when John Horgan took office as premier in the second half of 2017.
Horgan, who boasted of having his own hard hat, was more sympathetic to big industrial projects than the NDP environmental wing.
He appointed a team of ministers and public servants to see what it would take to persuade LNG Canada to proceed. They had to balance market, economic, environmental and Indigenous interests while ensuring a significant return to B.C.
The government put up $6 billion in tax and regulatory relief for LNG Canada over 40 years.
In return, B.C. expected $22 billion in revenue over the same period.
“I believe what we’re doing today is the business of government,” said Horgan when announcing the terms in March 2018.
“If we can realize industrial development, if we can do that within a framework that protects our environment and meets our climate objectives, brilliant. If we can ensure that genuine reconciliation can happen with Indigenous people, I believe we’ve not just checked all the boxes, but we’ve developed a framework that will mean something to B.C. now and into the future.”
Shortly after, the government introduced the enabling legislation for the package of tax and regulatory incentives. The Greens, the NDP’s partners in power sharing, were opposed. The Liberals, having started the ball rolling on LNG, provided the votes to ensure passage.
Similar terms would be available to other potential LNG investors, but the prime target was LNG Canada. Later in 2018, Shell and its partners greenlighted the investment.
Overall, LNG Canada says 35,000 people were employed at one time or another. Direct spending in B.C. was estimated at $5 billion — $4 billion to local- and Indigenous-owned businesses, all of it from private investors.
Plenty of boasting room there for the New Democrats.
But LNG Canada wouldn’t fit with the “clean, green” theme of Eby’s current resource development proposals.
The terminal will consume large amounts of natural gas to compress and freeze the product down to the temperature (minus-160 degrees) where it liquefies for transport by tanker.
The province says the greenhouse gas output can be managed within B.C.’s emissions targets.
Critics disagree. And Eby and the New Democrats may not want to draw attention to the controversy in an election year, with the Green party still campaigning against LNG development.
With LNG Canada nearing completion, there is another controversy on the horizon.
Four projects — LNG Canada, its Coastal GasLink pipeline, the TMX pipeline, and B.C. Hydro’s Site C project — have provided a major boost to job creation and economic growth in recent years, according to a landmark analysis by chief economist Ken Peacock of the B.C. Business Council.
All four are wrapped up or winding down, raising the question of what will replace them.
One obvious possibility is the second phase of the LNG Canada terminal.
When I toured the site earlier this year, my guide readily pointed out the empty spaces where the next two production trains would be located.
Shell and its partners won’t approve the final investment decision on Phase 2 without an agreement on a power supply.
The NDP’s preference is for “clean, green” electric power, presuming B.C. Hydro can fill the need in time.
The alternative would be to again power the production trains by burning natural gas.
Not a possibility that Eby wants to address before the election, and maybe not afterward.