Two Indigenous communities in the northwest region of 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 each initiated separate legal actions in the Federal Court, claiming that the Minister of Environment and Climate Change disregarded their concerns regarding the negative effects of the significant LNG project.
Recently, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada disclosed that the minister had authorized the construction of the facility off the northwest coast of British Columbia. Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson praised the decision, following British Columbia’s approval, as a demonstration of the federal government’s streamlined review process, relying on the province for its evaluation.
However, the Metlakatla First Nation argued in court filings that the decision was based on speculative economic reasoning to justify the adverse impacts of the project, while overlooking increasing evidence suggesting its lack of economic viability. The Lax Kw’alaams Band stated in legal documents that the project is slated for their traditional territory, posing a threat to their Aboriginal rights and title indefinitely.
Both Indigenous groups maintain unresolved Aboriginal title claims for the Mylor Peninsula in the British Columbia Supreme Court, where the installation of a transmission line is essential for powering the natural gas facility. Neither the government nor the Ksi Lisims project team has responded to the legal claims as of yet.
The project aims to establish two expansive floating facilities off Pearse Island in northwest British Columbia, with a capacity to process two billion cubic feet of gas daily and export 12 million tonnes of LNG annually. In a separate development, two legal challenges were filed in British Columbia in September, disputing the provincial government’s assertion that the pipeline supplying the project had been substantially initiated.
The failure of the Gitanyow hereditary chiefs to challenge the Ksi Lisims project in court was reported in September, as they contended they were inadequately consulted. The project is a collaborative effort involving the Nisga’a Nation, Rockies LNG Limited Partnership, and Western LNG, with project assets set to be built, owned, and operated by wholly owned subsidiaries of Western LNG, headquartered in Houston, Texas.