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British Columbia LNG pipeline in limbo as it awaits provincial decision

Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs met on Nov. 25 to recognize the expiration of PRGT's environmental assessment permit with a ceremony. Photo from Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs Office

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The fate of a 900-kilometre natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia is in limbo after its environmental assessment certificate expired on Nov. 25.

The province must decide whether to greenlight the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline by either making its decade-old certificate permanent or sending the entire project back to the drawing board for a new environmental assessment.

The PRGT pipeline will carry natural gas from northeastern B.C. to Ksi Lisims for export overseas. The Nisga’a Nation and Western LNG bought the pipeline from TC Energy in March 2024 but it has faced sustained opposition from the Gitanyow Heredity Chiefs, Kispiox Band and environmental groups who say the environmental assessment permit is outdated and inaccurate.

PRGT Ltd. is arguing it has already made a “substantial start” on construction of the pipeline before the certificate expired and should, therefore, be allowed to proceed. Construction began in late August and was met with protests and blockades from Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs and activists, who were aiming in part to avoid the “substantial start” claim, which carries legal weight.

The province must now make a decision by March 2025 with two possible outcomes, Matt Hulse, staff lawyer at Ecojustice, told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview.

If B.C. Minister of Environment and Parks Tamara Davidson decides PRGT has already made a “substantial start” on the pipeline construction work, the old environmental assessment certificate will become permanent and give PRGT the ability to continue construction whenever it pleases and on whatever timeline it sees fit, Hulse said.

Alternatively, the minister could decide there wasn’t enough work completed by Nov. 25 — the certificate’s expiration date — and then, PRGT has to get a new environmental assessment, he explained. The Gitanyow Heredity Chiefs’ position is that the proponent “very clearly has not met the threshold required to demonstrate a substantial start,” according to Gavin Smith, lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law and counsel for Gitanyow.

This wouldn’t kill the pipeline, but it would slow things down. 

The proponent would have to apply for a new certificate under the 2018 Environmental Assessment Act, “which is more rigourous than the 2002 version, which is what the project was assessed under originally,” Hulse said.

The fate of the 900-kilometre #PRGT natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia is in limbo after its environmental assessment certificate expired on Nov. 25. #bcpoli

It could take two to three years and cost millions of dollars to reassess the project and all its impacts and cumulative effects, he added. Hulse is representing a coalition of community groups and Kispiox Band in a judicial review of the project filed in late August.

If the provincial government decides in favour of PRGT, Gitanyow said in a news release it is prepared to challenge the decision in provincial court.

PRGT’s application said more than 42 kilometres of the initial pipeline right-of-way was cleared between Aug. 24 and Nov. 12. The pipeline’s total length will be up to 900 kilometres, so clearing 42 kilometres “is a really tiny amount of work,” Hulse said.

The application also said 47 kilometres of access roads have been upgraded or maintained  “which sounds like a lot, but there’s 850 kilometres of road that they might have to upgrade along the project, so there's a lot to still go,” Hulse said. Only work that occurred up until Nov. 25 can be considered as part of the substantial start application. The application argues PRGT Ltd.  invested 12 years of significant time, effort and resources to physically develop the project, including about $70 million invested in construction activities in 2024. The construction cost for the entire project was estimated at $5 billion in 2014. Western LNG does not have an updated cost estimate.

"PRGT is not planning to advance construction activities during the winter months due to the weather’s impact on field conditions,” said Rebecca Scott, senior manager of communications for Western LNG, in an emailed statement to Canada’s National Observer. Scott added that on-site monitoring and management actions will continue over the winter.

If the province denies the substantial start application, any construction work done after Nov. 25 would be illegal. 

Environment Minister Davidson also has the option to delegate decision-making to the head bureaucrat at the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, Hulse and Smith noted.

For most projects, Hulse said, it is fine to put the decision in a bureaucrat’s hands, but this is a complicated situation. The pipeline will cross the width of B.C. and is premised on information and an assessment that's 10 years old and does not reflect the current perspectives of Indigenous communities or other people along the route, let alone other factors like the escalating impacts of climate change, for example, he said.

In his view, this “is a political decision as much as anything else,” and “the decision-maker should be the one who is publicly accountable, which is the minister,” not bureaucrats.

Although rejecting the substantial start application wouldn't kill the project, it would set it back and create implications for Nisga’a Nation, which owns the project, he added. 

“The government wants to maintain good relationships with Indigenous communities. Obviously, this is just one along the pipeline route, but they own the pipeline, so that's another … political decision that I think it should be left to the minister to make,” Hulse said.

In an emailed statement, EAO spokesperson Sarah Plank said the EAO is inspecting the project site this month, examining all project-related documentation and consulting with First Nations. 

Determining whether the project has been substantially started will take some time and the EAO will provide the decision-maker with a report on its findings in spring 2025, said Plank’s statement said

Canada’s National Observer did not receive comment from Davidson’s office. Plank said PRGT has “demobilized construction activities at this time.”

Smith thinks the decision will be an important precedent, establishing the acceptable standard for companies looking to lock-in projects by seeking a “substantial start.”

Companies regularly try to use this strategy to lock in environmental assessment approval for the long term on a project that they aren't yet ready to build, with PRGT as the most obvious example, Smith said.

Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs celebrated the expiry of the environmental assessment certificate as “the first step towards the end of PRGT,” Chief Glen Williams said in a press release published Nov. 25.

“This out-of-date and risky project does not meet the current needs of Gitanyow and others, mainly a healthy climate and thriving environment for future generations," his statement said. 

The Gitanyow will continue to resist PRGT on the ground with new cabins, a new Indigenous Protected Area, and on-going monitoring conducted by Wilp members and the Lax’yip Guardians, Chief Deborah Good’s statement reads.

— With files from Matteo Cimellaro

Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer

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