B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office ruled on Thursday (June 5) that the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) is "substantially started," meaning it can proceed using its current 10-year-old environmental assessment certificate.
Many environmental groups, local First Nations and the BC Greens expressed dismay at the decision.
PRGT was first approved in 2014. It was originally owned by TC Energy, but was sold in March 2024 to the Nisg̱a’a Nation and Texas-based Western LNG. Construction began in August 2024.
In the decision, B.C.’s chief executive assessment officer determined that enough construction was completed by Nov. 25, 2024, to meet the criteria to keep the certificate. If this decision had gone the other way, the pipeline project would have had to go through the assessment process again.
Western LNG issued a press release highlighting the project’s Indigenous ownership and saying that the company will gradually ramp up construction activity in the coming weeks.
“This is an important step—not just for PRGT, but for the Nisga’a Nation’s vision of self-determination and long-term prosperity,” said Eva Clayton, Nisga’a Lisims president, in the release from Western LNG.
This project has long been opposed by other Indigenous groups such as the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs and members of the Kispiox community. Several court challenges related to the pipeline are still underway.
"The government has declared PRGT substantially started when the pipeline does not have a legally approved origin point or terminus, when minimal and rushed work was completed in 2024, and when several matters concerning the process are before the courts," said Kathy Klay, the president of the Kispiox Valley Community Centre Association, which is near Hazelton.
The pipeline would take liquefied natural gas approximately 900 kilometres across northern B.C. from Hudson’s Hope in the east to Prince Rupert, where it can be loaded onto ships headed to foreign markets via the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal.
The terminal, which is on Nisg̱a’a territory, does not yet have an approved environmental certificate.
Tara Marsden, sustainability director for the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, told ronaldomanosa the proposed pipeline would run through 50 kilometres of Gitanyow territory.
She challenged the idea that the project was “substantially started,” saying that less than five per cent of the total right-of-way had been cleared. The Gitanyow made submissions to the decision-maker involved, but Marsden said they were ignored.
"This is just another example of this government bending its own rules or completely disregarding them, in some cases, to facilitate this project going ahead," she said.
Western LNG said that in 2024, 42 kilometres of the right-of-way were cleared, 47 kilometres of access roads were built, and nine permanent bridges were put up. This was all done with a 30-per-cent Indigenous employment rate. So far, roughly $600 has been invested overall.
Last winter, workers tried to begin construction in the Gitanyow territory. Marsden said the Gitanyow set up a checkpoint and kept the workers out.
She said that as soon as this coming November, they might be forced to let workers into the territory.
That is, unless one of the numerous court challenges underway is successful. The Gitanyow are challenging the location of the proposed terminal.
"The terminal is right on critical habitat for juvenile salmon, which migrate into Gitanyow territory and migrate out of our territory," Marsden said.
The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition is also involved in lawsuits arguing that the cumulative effects of the pipeline — the total impact on the environment and society — were not properly taken into consideration.
Jesse Stoeppler, the coalition’s executive director, told Black Press he was not surprised, but that it was still a “big disappointment.” He said he felt that concerns “fell on deaf ears.”
Stoeppler also linked this move to the current push for nation-building resource projects by Prime Minister Mark Carney and many of Canada’s premiers.
The pipeline also has American backers in addition to its Indigenous co-owners, something Stoeppler and B.C. Greens interim Leader Jeremy Valeriote were quick to point out.
“It is absolutely clear that a project like PRGT is funded and will benefit, first and foremost, Wall Street billionaires and the U.S., before it will ever benefit British Columbians or Canadians,” Stoeppler said.
