Triton LNG takes another step forward with export licence approval

Of the many proposed LNG projects for the region, not much had been heard of late regarding the Triton LNG, however on Friday, their plans for a terminal development for the North Coast showed some signs of stirring, with the approval of the National Energy Board for an export licence.

The document from the NEB dated October 24th outlines the scope of their approval which allows for shipment of Liquefied Natural Gas for a period of ten years, effective the date of approval of October 8th.

The notice advices that the approval is for a liquefaction terminal to be located in the vicinity of either Kitimat or Prince Rupert. Not much has been revealed in recent months regarding the Triton proposal as far as for any plans for Prince Rupert.

The most recent developments the plans of Alta Gas and Idemitsu of Japan the parent corporations for Triton, were outlined by the Calgary Herald last week.  That review outlines the plans  of Alta Gas, to buy the barge based Douglas Channel LNG project out of insolvency procedures.

While we await further information when it comes to their Prince Rupert plans, you can review our archive items regarding Triton here.

City Manager points towards City's Legacy Corporation for Dr. Faggetter hiring

The City of Prince Rupert offered up the mechanics of its Legacy Corporation on Monday as a partial answer as to the process, which has seen Oceanographer Barb Faggetter hired to conduct research work on the Tuck Inlet area, conducting her work on behalf of the Legacy Corporation.

That at least from a "clarification" for the weekly newspaper on Monday, from City Manager Robert Long who outlined that the Legacy Corporation, a wholly owned corporation of the City of Prince Rupert, and one created by City Council, technically made the hire of Dr. Faggetter to conduct work related to Lot 444, a portion of which has been earmarked for LNG developed..

As we outlined on the blog last week, word of Dr. Faggetter's hiring wasn't so much announced, as  it was mentioned more as an aside.  With Councillor Joy Thorkelson referencing the hiring, as she spoke to Council at the end of last Monday's Council session, making mention of Dr. Faggetter's ongoing efforts for the City.

No public notice from either the City, or the Legacy Corporation has been delivered previous to outline the scope the the work on this particular issue, nor it would appear to even  provide an announcement regarding the hiring of Doctor Faggetter, particularly on what would appear to be an in house Enviornmental Assessment.

Mr. Long's very brief overview of the situation, didn't really clear up much in the way of questions that should be raised about the process involved in hiring Dr. Faggetter, nor does it offer up any glimpse as to how the members of Council and the Mayor seem to have formulated the Legacy Corporation and its terms of operation.

You can review some of Council's past work on the Legacy Corporation process from this item of June.   As well, some background on the discussion at the Council session where the Corporation was announced can be found from our Council Timeline for May 26th.

As Mr. Long explained during a session of Council on June 23rd, the use of the Legacy Corporation for the purposes of LNG discussions regarding Lot 444,  could be be compared to the arrangement that the City has with CityWest.  

You can review the discussion of the time from the City's Video Archive, the discussions on Lot 444 and the Legacy Corporation arrive at the one hour eight minute mark until one hour sixteen minutes.
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The comparison of the Legacy Corporation to CityWest does offer up an interesting dynamic.

As the relationship between CityWest and the City has in the past made for a very lively part of  Municipal Election campaigns, with more than a few Councillors in recent times vowing to seek out more transparency and accountability on the relationship between CityWest and the City.

Though it's fair to say, that CityWest is perhaps the one major topic in Prince Rupert that doesn't actually need an election cycle to quickly jump back into the political mix.

Any number of questions come to mind when you consider what little we know about the Legacy Corporation process and what role City Council has regarding it ( a quest using the City's search engine on their website provides no results).

For starters, how the Corporation is supposed to work as far as terms of reference, how appointments are made to it (and who may be appointed to the corporation at this time) and who the Legacy Corporation is ultimately accountable to at the end of the day.

Readers can probably add quite a number more to the list, all aspects of the City mechanism which should be reviewed in the public setting of the Council forum.

Some of our past items along the Lot 444 path which led to the Legacy Company formation can be found below:

May 17-- City receives approval of Province for Boundary Expansion
June 2-- A share of the LNG rush? City's newly expanded boundary to include LNG site
June 26-- Lot 444 becomes a talking point at Council
July 10-- Imperial Oil delivers an introduction to Tuck Inlet LNG proposal for City Council
July 11-- Bylaws, Buffers and differences of opinion for Lot 444
July 18-- Imperial Oil sets July 24th for Public Presentation on Tuck Inlet LNG proposal
September 1-- Council sends Lot 44 amendments back to staff for revision

At the time that the City introduced us to the Legacy Corporation back in May, it was as part of the delivery of items released from one of Council's many closed sessions this year.

The full review at that time of introduction was rather limited, with the added note of advisement during that review, that some aspects of the Corporation would have to remain undisclosed at the time. And for the most part, many aspects of the Corporation  appear to have remained that way into the fall.

So far, the only Mayoralty candidate to even mention Lot 444 has been Lee Brain, who in September addressed the need for more transparency on the theme.

To the midway point of the election campaign, neither Mayoralty Challengers, Tony Briglio, nor Sheila Gordon-Payne have offered up any comments related to the Lot 444 process.

Considering the limited overview of the Legacy Corporation and the Lot 444 process, it might just be this election's CityWest type of issue. Perhaps one which might just attract inquiries beyond those from Mr. Brain.

MLA's Week, October 20-23, 2014

The Second week of the fall session of the British Columbia Legislature found North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice bringing up three items to Chamber, all of them as part of Tuesday's proceedings.

With concerns about Medical Transportation Costs on Haida Gwaii,  the clean up requirements of the Heiltsuk Nation regarding the Namu cannery site and a short answer to the issues of LNG from the Speech to the Throne.

From the six sessions of the Legislature in the House, or Committee work listed for the week of October 6-9, MLA Rice  appeared in the Index three times during the week.

On Tuesday, Ms. Rice spoke in the Morning session regarding the cost of Medical Transportation for Residents of Haida Gwaii.

She also spoke that morning, on the issue of remediation of the Namu Cannery site, which the Heiltsuk Nation is seeking the assistance of the government on. Ms. Rice asked for the Government's help in forcing the responsible parties to clean up the mess and situation that currently exists at Namu.

Her final commentary in the Legislature for the week came as part of the Response to the Speech from the Throne portion of the proceedings in the afternoon session.

In the course of her ten minutes at the end of the day's session, MLA Rice highlighted the work of her staff both at her constituency offices and at the Legislature. She then offered up a number of observations on LNG development and read from an article in the Victoria Times-Colonist regarding some of the issues that Prince Rupert faces from LNG.

Her week in Victoria was short however, as on Wednesday Ms. Rice was in Prince Rupert for the CBC's LNG forum.

As for committee work, MLA Rice is a member of the Standing Committee on Children and Youth, that Committee met on Tuesday morning. Her contribution to that committee can be reviewed from the Committee webpage, she offers up commentary at 8:45 AM of the audio file provided.

Some of our items from MLA Rice's week at the Legislature can be found below.

MLA Rice raises Medical Transportation costs on Haida Gwaii during Legislature session
Namu Cannery Clean Up requirements raised in Legislature last week
MLA seeks more than promises on theme of LNG in Legislature

You can examine our reviews of past weeks of the Legislature sessions of 2014 from our Archive page.

We have more background on the North Coast MLA available from our General Archive on the Legislature as well.

MLA seeks more than promises on theme of LNG in Legislature

As part of last weeks response to the Speech from the Throne, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice challenged a few of the Provincial Liberal's themes on LNG, in particular when it comes to the recently announced Tax Regime.

On that topic Ms. Rice offered up that the government announcement provide for a failure for the government's bargaining position. With the windfall that was promised now a thing of the past. Suggesting that the Tax Regime was written by industry for industry.

Today we find out that British Columbians are getting half of what she promised. I find it hard to take the Premier at her word when it comes to LNG. She knew what to say when she promised a fair share from LNG, then turned around and did the opposite. Shamefully, the LNG tax regime was written by industry for industry.

The Premier eliminated B.C.'s bargaining position with her outlandish promises. Now we see the result of that failure. The Premier and the B.C. Liberals are selling out B.C. They knew what to say at election time, but their grand promises of a "Debt-free B.C.," eliminating the PST and creating those thousands of jobs have fallen away. Now they're talking about LNG to just pay for the basics, like health care. What happened to the windfall we were promised? The throne speech is now switching gears.

An LNG industry in B.C. needs to protect our land, our air and our water. That means honouring our climate change commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation covering environmental regulations won't achieve that. It fails to address upstream emissions from natural gas production and gives liquefication facilities enough loopholes to ensure they won't meet our emission targets.

Ms. Rice also stressed the desire of the NDP to seek guarantees of jobs, and training opportunities for British Columbians, as well as a fair return for the provinces resources.  She also called on the province to make sure that LNG explicitly benefits First Nations and protects air, land, water and climate change commitments.

She also reviewed for the Legislature of the concerns for some residents of the North Coast when it comes to development of LNG terminal options near the Flora Bank

I'd also like to mention that the First Nations in my community around Prince Rupert are really concerned about LNG and the Skeena River, and they're concerned about the estuary. They're not necessarily concerned about the gas evaporating. 

They're concerned about the industrialization of the Skeena estuary, and they're concerned particularly about Flora Bank, which is the largest remaining intact eelgrass bed in British Columbia. Now, eelgrass is not something you smoke. It's actually very important fish habitat. It's important fish habitat for British Columbia's second-largest salmon run. 

We support the development of LNG if it comes with express commitments for the well-paying jobs and skill development opportunities British Columbians need. The government is trying to meet this standard as they continue to fail on skills training and rely on temporary foreign workers and ignore other sectors of the economy.

As she closed her ten minute review, which wrapped up the Tuesday afternoon session of the Legislature, Ms. Rice read a from the Victoria Times Colonist article of October 18th which highlighted some of the issues and concerns that Prince Rupert is facing as the LNG prospects continue to form up.

You can review the full transcript of her comments to the Legislature here, her presentation starts at the  1815 mark.  You can view it from the Legislature Video files by clicking on House Video for Tuesday Afternoon, Ms. Rice speaks at the

For more items of note regarding the work of MLA Rice at the Legislature see our archive pages, the Archive for the week of October 20-13 can be found here.

While the larger overview of events at the Legislature related to the North Coast and Haida Gwaii can be found here.

Namu Cannery Clean up requirements raised in Legislature last week

Last Tuesday morning, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice outlined for the Legislature a situation of great concern for the Heiltsuk Nation, with a range of issues related to required remediation at the old Namu Cannery Site.

With chemicals and debris still part of the landscape and none of the past operators of the region accepting responsibility, MLA Rice sought out guarantees from the province to offer assistance to the Heiltsuk as the seek to return the site to its original state.

Ms. Rice outlined the prohibitive nature of the costs of that work that face the Heiltsuk and called into question the ability of the Provincial government to address larger environmental issues when they won't take action on this smaller scale issue of Namu.

The video review of her presentation to the Legislature and question for the Minister can be viewed below from the BC NDP Caucus You Tube page.





The transcript of her exchange with the Minister can be found in the pages of Hansard, at the 10:05  mark of the Tuesday morning session.

For more items of note regarding the work of MLA Rice at the Legislature see our archive pages, the Archive for the week of October 20-13 can be found here.

While the larger overview of events at the Legislature related to the North Coast and Haida Gwaii can be found here.

MLA Rice raises Medical Transportation costs on Haida Gwaii during Legislature session

The cost of Medical Transportation and the need for the Government to provide for more options for travel to residents of Haida Gwaii was offered up for discussion at the Legislature last week.

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice brought the issue to the attention of Health Minister Terry Lake, with a short question to the Minister in the Tuesday morning session.

Ms. Rice outlined the current nature of the coverage of the Medical Transportation program which covers 100 percent of Ferry Transportation, but only 30 percent of air travel on certain airlines.

She advised the Minister that it actually costs less to fly, than it does to take the ferry and that only one airline on Haida Gwaii is currently covered by the program.

She asked if the Minister would move to cover more of the cost to families that fly out of remote communities and receive the medical treatment that they need.

Minister Lake provided a short review of government policy for the MLA, advising that the Ministry is always reviewing the travel assistance program.

You can review the video of the session, from the BC NDP Caucus You Tube page.




The transcript of her exchange with the Minister can be found in the pages of Hansard, at the 10:32 mark of the Tuesday morning session.

For more items of note regarding the work of MLA Rice at the Legislature see our archive pages, the Archive for the week of October 20-13 can be found here.

While the larger overview of events at the Legislature related to the North Coast and Haida Gwaii can be found here.

Oil refinery proposals and concerns once again simmer on the North Coast stove

The prospect of oil refinery development on the North Coast has had a fairly low profile of late, taking a bit of a back seat to the engagement over LNG terminals, pipelines and such.

But, it's still there, part of a distant economic blue print of the region for some, the object of the marshaling of forces against it for others.

In the last month, the oil refinery topic started to work its way back into the Northwest discussion, first with Nathan Cullen's recent tour of the area to outline his Take Back Our Coast tour, a private members bill that would ban oil tankers off of the North Coast, while at the same time seemingly advocating for the development of oil refineries to ship refined products to world markets.

It for many appears to be a project at cross purposes, but the NDP MP for BulkleyValley-Skeena is clearly focused on his twin strategies as a path forward for the region. And while Mr. Cullen makes the tour of the region to outline his proposals, two different groups are still working on their plans to develop oil refinery capacity somewhere on the North Coast.

This month, the two proponents of oil refinery and shipment terminals for the North Coast both had some time with influential journalist Vaughn Palmer, through his Voice of BC Program.

David Black, the owner of the Black Press newspaper chain and proponent of Kitimat Clean shared an hour with Jeffrey Copenance the spokesperson for Pacific Future Energy Corporation, The latter organization has suggested that it would like to build an oil refinery and shipment terminal in Northwest British Columbia, with the possibility of it being placed somewhere on the North Coast, near Prince Rupert or Lax Kw'alaams.

Both gentlemen made their case for why their proposal offered the best opportunity and best benefits to the region should they move forward with development.

You can review those interviews below.
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And while the two proposals continue to develop, plans to stop them in their tracks are also moving ahead, as a number of groups express their concern over any talk of  oil refinery development in the region.

One path that local opponents are taking is through the October/November edition of the publication the Gitga'at Guardian, which features a  page five article from Luanne Roth, retracing much of her previous work on the prospect of oil terminals and a concern that there may be plans in place to develop one on Ridley Island.

Gitga'at Guardian
Cover Page Oct/Nov

Item on Ridley Island from
Gitga'at Guardian pg 5

It's an observation that has been expressed before, through the website of Save our Skeena Salmon, an organization which appears to be taking the lead on many of the environmental issues related to oil refineries and LNG development in the area. The Prince Rupert Port Authority has in the past responded that at the moment, no facility of this kind is proposed for Ridley Island.

Still the awareness campaign  continues on, with local environmental groups hosting their own Film night on the topic, this Wednesday at Northwest Community College, with a 7 PM start time.

Wednesday Friends of the Skeena Salmon and the Prince Rupert Environmental Society will be reviewing the documentary Pretty Slick,  followed by discussions to come later on the theme of the potential dangers of oil refinery development and environmental concern.

The trailer for the Wednesday evening presentation can be found below:
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All of which has made October Oil refinery month on the North Coast, with reviews and opinion for all shades of the debate.

For more on the plans of the Oil refinery developers and the issues surrounding the topic see our archive page here.