Two indigenous groups in northwestern British Columbia are suing the Canadian government over its approval of the Ksi Lisims floating natural gas facility and marine export terminal near Prince Rupert. The Lax Kw’alaams Band and the Metlakatla First Nation have separately filed legal challenges in the Federal Court, accusing the Minister of Environment and Climate Change of disregarding their concerns regarding the negative impacts of the large-scale LNG project.
The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada recently announced that the minister had sanctioned the facility off the northwest coast of British Columbia. Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson praised the decision, aligning it with the federal government’s “one project, one review” system, which relied on the province’s assessment.
However, the Metlakatla First Nation argues in court filings that the decision was based on “speculative economic concepts” to justify the adverse impacts of the project, disregarding increasing evidence of its economic infeasibility. The Lax Kw’alaams Band asserts in court documents that the project encroaches on its traditional territory, posing a threat to its Aboriginal rights and title indefinitely.
Both indigenous groups have unresolved Aboriginal title claims for the Mylor Peninsula in British Columbia Supreme Court, where a transmission line is planned to power the natural gas facility. The government and the Ksi Lisims project team have not yet responded to the legal claims.
The project aims to construct two floating facilities off Pearse Island in northwestern British Columbia, with the capacity to process two billion cubic feet of gas daily and export 12 million tonnes of LNG annually. Legal challenges were also filed in British Columbia in September, disputing the provincial government’s assessment that the pipeline necessary for the project had been substantially initiated.
The project, a collaboration between the Nisga’a Nation, Rockies LNG Limited Partnership, and Western LNG, will see its assets built, owned, and operated by wholly owned subsidiaries of Western LNG, headquartered in Houston, Texas.
