Innovative partnerships fuel charging Canadian LNG projects

started building relationships with local and Indigenous communities long before we started building our facility. The fact is, we would not have proceeded without their understanding and support.”

LNG Canada has set a high bar for relations with First Nations, notably by entering into significant business deals with Indigenous businesses in BC. By the end of 2022, more than C$3bn of contracts had been awarded to First Nations businesses and other local businesses in the Kitimat area, while across the province, the value of such contracts stands at more than C$4bn.

The new and powerful role being played by Canada’s First Nations in a post-LNG Canada world is reflected in a new report released in early March by Energy for a Secure Future (ESF), a non-partisan initiative that brings together Canadian business leaders, indigenous peoples, organisations and experts in a new conversation about energy and the world’s collective energy future. Its report, Ownership and Beyond: How Indigenous Peoples are Shaping a More Secure Energy Future, highlights how full indigenous involvement in energy projects is beneficial for all parties. And nowhere is this more evident than in Canadian LNG developments.

“The combination of an enormous new energy resource and a highly developed indigenous rights regime has made the Canadian LNG sector develop to be possibly the most sophisticated in the world in terms of engagement, inclusion and leadership by First Nations,” the report says. “This is manifested not only in employment, business contracting and revenues, but also in ground-breaking equity ownership, Indigenous regulatory oversight, and now, with Cedar and Ksi Lisims LNG, Indigenous proponents leading major projects.” own environmental approval in 2015, with 13 unique Squamish Nation conditions, alongside approvals from both the federal and provincial governments. It’s the first legally-binding, Indigenous-led environmental approval of a project in Canada. Woodfibre LNG recognizes the importance of local and Indigenous economic participation in the project and works with project partners to maximize employment, training, contracting, and other business opportunities for local and Indigenous peoples.

“Woodfibre LNG has chosen to engage with Squamish Nation through the Squamish Process because Woodfibre LNG wishes to establish a long-term relationship with the Squamish Nation and to honour the Squamish Nation’s views on the preferred manner by which a project proponent will engage with Squamish Nation to discuss such a project,” Woodfibre LNG said in an April 2015 letter to the EAO. “Woodfibre LNG is of the view that for the project to be successful and of benefit to the company, the province and Squamish Nation, Woodfibre LNG’s willingness to participate in the Squamish Process is essential.”

Ian Campbell, a hereditary chief of Squamish Nation, tells Global Voice of Gas (GVG) his community wasn’t interested at all in maintaining a status quo that has seen the Squamish people excluded from all past industrial developments on its territories.

LNG Canada – a consortium of five global natural gas players – is ramping up to peak construction this year on its 14 MTPA first phase on British Columbia’s (BC) northern coast. At Woodfibre LNG, a 2.1-MTPA project in Howe Sound, north of Vancouver, construction is intended to start later this year. Cedar LNG, a floating LNG project that would deliver 3 MTPA from a location not far from LNG Canada, is awaiting federal and provincial regulatory approvals. And Ksi Lisims LNG, a 12-MTPA floating LNG facility not more than a stone’s throw from the Canada-US border in northern BC, is awaiting preparation of its environmental impact assessment.

What do these four LNG projects, all of which are intended to displace coal in Asian power markets, have in common? None would be where they are today without the proactive and innovative partnerships and engagement with dozens of First Nations across the province, from producing fields in the northeast, along proposed and under-construction pipeline routes, to the location of the terminals on the traditional territories of the Haisla, Squamish and Nisga’a First Nations.

As Jason Klein, LNG Canada’s CEO notes, “As a joint venture of five participants, all of them very successful in resource development in different parts of the world, we needed to bring the local perspective to the LNG Canada project. That means working with local and Indigenous stakeholders to identify and address local priorities. We

Woodfibre LNG

Woodfibre LNG, owned 70% by Singapore’s RGE Group through Pacific Energy, its Canadian subsidiary, and 30% by Enbridge, is equally committed to working closely with impacted First Nations,

Located on the western shore of Howe Sound approximately seven kilometres southwest of Squamish, the C$6.8bn (US$5.1bn) project includes two onshore liquefaction trains and up to 250,000 m3 of floating storage. Construction will get underway in September 2023, with the first gas deliveries anticipated in 2027.

The Woodfibre LNG project is unique in that Squamish Nation, on whose traditional territories the facility will be built, reviewed the project and issued its

“We wanted to reframe that whole process and work with the proponent Woodfibre to start building a process that would have a start and a finish and would ultimately be a process in how to garner consent on a project,” he says. “The consultation record wasn’t so paramount as was the focus on getting to a conclusion where the Nation could make a decision based on solid analysis that we could defend.”

Christine Kennedy joined Woodfibre LNG as its president about 18 months ago, and a strong influence on her decision to take the position was the relationship built between Woodfibre LNG and the Squamish Nation, including not just the regulatory oversight but also a comprehensive impact benefits agreement (IBA).

“I wouldn’t have come if the founding relationship with the nation wasn’t the way it was because I believe that is critical and essential to beneficial industrial development in a modern era,” she tells GVG. “Real meaningful, mutually beneficial and respectful engagement are table stakes for how you do projects like this and I’m grateful for all of the work that was done with the Squamish Nation environmental assessment and the IBA that have given us the foundation to build the project.”

Cedar LNG

Haisla Nation’s C$3bn Cedar LNG project, a floating liquefaction facility on the shores of Douglas Channel not far from the LNG Canada site, is a significant example of where First Nations stand on resource development, especially in the era that began with LNG Canada’s arrival.

“The Haisla nation has studied the LNG industry for more than 10 years, and we recognised early on that there was value in us joining the global stage to ensure our voice and our values are contributing to a better future,” Crystal Smith, Chief Councillor of Haisla Nation and co-chair of ESF’s advisory council, told NGW recently.

Cedar LNG is owned equally by Haisla Nation and Alberta-based Pembina Pipeline. It is Haisla’s first investment in industrial development on its lands and is seen as a model of how other First Nations in Canada can approach reconciliation and self-determination.

“The project is a key element of the Haisla Nation economic and social development strategy and will further advance reconciliation by allowing Haisla Nation to – for the first time ever – directly own and participate in a major industrial development in its territory,” says Cedar LNG’s detailed project description, which was filed with provincial and federal regulators in December 2019.

Cedar LNG’s environmental assessment was referred to the provincial and federal governments by the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) in mid-November 2022, with a mandated 45-day time limit for a decision. BC officials finally approved the project on March 14; the federal government approved it the next day.

The delay wasn’t a concern for either Pembina Pipeline or its Haisla Nation partner.

“We’re very confident in the application,” Mike Eddy, Pembina’s Director of External Relations, tells GVG. “As you know we’re best in class in terms of our environmental footprint and our GHG intensity. We have strong support from all the surrounding First Nations. We’ve worked very well with government over the past two years, with new cabinets.”

Smith says the success of LNG Canada, which will receive its feed gas from Coastal GasLink, which will also have indigenous equity ownership when it is commissioned, led directly to the success of Cedar LNG.

“Without LNG Canada’s positive final investment decision, Cedar would not have the unique opportunity that we do have seeing as there’ll be no new infrastructure built,” she tells GVG. “We’re coming off the Coastal GasLink pipeline and I think that just adds to one of the positive reasons why Cedar will be successful.”

Ksi Lisims LNG

Ksi Lisims LNG is being developed by the Nisga’a Nation, the first BC First Nation with a modern treaty with the federal and provincial governments. Its partners are Rockies LNG Partnership, a group of six western Canadian natural gas producers, and Houston-based Western LNG.

The project is awaiting the preparation of an environmental assessment by the EAO under a joint provincial and federal review process that will also comply with assessment provisions of the Nisga’a Treaty. Pending approval of its EA certificate application, a positive final investment decision for the C$8.3C$9bn project could come before the end of 2024, and commissioning could begin as early as late 2027.

Ksi Lisims LNG is unique among BC’s proposed

LNG developments in that it falls under the terms of the Nisga’a Treaty, negotiated in 2000, which gives the Nisga’a constitutionally protected rights and legislative jurisdiction over all industrial developments on or near Nisga’a lands, Nisga’a President Eva Clayton tells GVG “It recognizes Nisga’a lands and opens the door for joint economic initiatives in the development of the Nisga’a Nation’s natural resources,” she says of the treaty. “The Ksi Lisims LNG facility will show that the modern yreaty process can successfully advance British Columbia’s goals of indigenous sovereignty and reconciliation.”

The Nisga’a have been working for a decade to bring LNG developments to its territory, and studied four locations as appropriate industrial sites, focusing on minimising environmental impacts, eliminating safety risks and avoiding sensitive habitat. At the same time, it searched for experienced and credible partners who shared its values surrounding selfdetermination and reconciliation.

“Among the many objectives we hope to achieve is to help alleviate poverty in our community and create an economic base for future generations,” Clayton says. “Our partnership is working together to ensure maximum education, training, employment and contracting opportunities can be successfully accessed by our people.”