WCC LNG Tuck Inlet project now in Environmental Assessment phase

The first steps along the path of review for the WCC LNG Terminal project are now underway.

With word this week from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency that the Federal Environment Minister has granted a substitution of the Environmental Assessment to the province of British Columbia.

Turning the review process over to the British Columbia Assessment Office, but retaining Federal involvement in the project review as the process moves forward.

The notice of substitution was posted to the CEAA website on February 26th and provides for a number of conditions, which include:

The public will be given an opportunity to participate in the environmental assessment. 

The public will have access to records in relation to the environmental assessment to enable their meaningful participation. 

At the end of the environmental assessment, B.C. will submit a report to the Agency that includes the findings and conclusions of the environmental assessment with respect to the factors as set out in subsection 19(1) of CEAA 2012. 

The report will be made available to the public.

Beyond those requirements of the CEAA process, Federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq has established additional conditions for this review, some of the main conditions of note are:

British Columbia is to involve federal authorities in the British Columbia process. 

The provincial review will conduct procedural aspects of Aboriginal consultation in accordance to process set out in the Memorandum of Understanding.  

British Columbia will also make available to Aboriginal groups funding provided by the Agency to support Aboriginal consultation during the substituted environmental assessment.

You can review the full notice of Substitution here.

The terms of the Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 can be examined here.

The project, as proposed by Exxon/Mobil/Imperial  Oil  would see an LNG facility and marine shipping terminal constructed on the eastern shore of Tuck Inlet.

Located within the City of Prince Rupert limits, it has become a project that the City of Prince Rupert has expressed some enthusiasm for, owing to the potential of return that it may provide to the city should it move forward to construction.

WCC LNG recently provided a 6 million dollar payment to Prince Rupert's Legacy Corporation for access to the city owned land for further study for their LNG plans.

How the City plans to use that initial amount of money from the Legacy Corporation was outlined as part of the City's Budget Presentation of last Monday evening.

The CEAA overview of the WCC LNG project can be found here.

We have more items related to the Tuck Inlet project available on our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review