With 650 construction jobs, 100 operational jobs and LNG ready to be shipped by 2020, there are community and socio-economic impacts, both positive and negative, that the District of Squamish must ready for and prepare to embrace, the district said in a statement.
The Province of British Columbia and the Board of the Woodfibre LNG Corporation announced Friday morning that the $1.6 billion project will move forward to become B.C.’s first LNG plant. The Province also announced a new eDrive electricity rate that could result in reductions of GHGe emissions from the project by 80 per cent.
“This news isn’t surprising given that WLNG has acted as if it were going to proceed for several months now. We believe the new eDrive rate has helped facilitate the business decision as to whether or not this project is viable,” says District of Squamish Mayor Patricia Heintzman. “The project has been and will continue to be a controversial proposal in Squamish. We, as a community, have extremely high expectations regarding the safety of our community, the safety of our waterways and the protection of our environment.”
An environmental assessment certificate which included 25 legally binding conditions, received provincial approval in October 2015 and federal approval in March 2016. Construction is scheduled to start in 2017 with first shipments planned for 2020.
Herbert Vesely says
Not a word was said about the associated Natural Gas driven compressor station on the flank of Mount Mulligan. This compressor plant will potentially produce a health damaging level of noise for neighbourhoods nearby. The company has refused to conduct a very simple, helicopter based, noise level simulation test to actually find out what the real noise transmission (attenuation) from that site to our affected neighbourhoods would be. Instead they rely on computer modelling that it acknowledges as being unable to take into account reverberations between rock faces.
They have also refused to consider an alternate location, about 4 km south, at the pass between the Stawamus valley and the Indian arm valley where there is plenty of level land and located sufficiently removed from any Squamish residences and right along the planned pipeline route.
Patricia Marini says
Who are we going to sell to? Russia and Austrailia are selling to China?
Jon says
Corruption. Money. Greed.
That’s the only reason this is happening.
No one really wants an industrial plant beside the beautiful pristine waters we call the Howe Sound, the place where whales just started coming back last year after 15 years of polluted waters. The place where eagles fly, bears and salmon live, the place which used to belong to the proud First Nations , which was taken away, a land now raped by corruption, money and greed.
STAND UP
SAY NO TO LNG. PROTECT WHERE YOU LIVE, PROTECT NATURE.
David Lassmann says
There are environmental reasons to be concerned about this project but they have been deemed unimportant by the senior levels of government. Here's some fun facts and figures: There are about 1 or 1.5 billion people in the world who are considered to be chronically malnourished, meaning that they are too poor to be able to buy enough food. Many more are only slightly better off. Would these people like to be wealthy enough to own and drive around in a car? You betcha! The prevailing attitude in politics is that the global economy must continue to expand, meaning continue to increase the extraction and exploitation of natural resources. Gloabal warming? Ecological collapse? Forget about it!
Paula Hoover says
I thought that the Howe Sound and the fact that it sits on a fault line would win the environmental argument and other locations would seem more appropriate. I am disappointed, worried and hope to God this doesn’t turn into a disaster.