Two Indigenous groups in the northwest region of British Columbia have initiated legal action against the Canadian government to overturn the approval of the Ksi Lisims floating natural gas facility and marine export terminal situated near Prince Rupert. The Lax Kw’alaams Band and the Metlakatla First Nation have separately filed judicial reviews in the Federal Court, alleging that the Minister of Environment and Climate Change disregarded their concerns regarding the negative impacts of the extensive LNG project.
The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada recently announced the minister’s authorization of the facility off the coast of northern British Columbia. Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson praised the decision, emphasizing the federal government’s reliance on the province for assessment under the “one project, one review” system immediately following British Columbia’s approval.
Contrarily, the Metlakatla First Nation has criticized the decision in court documents, claiming it based on “speculative economic concepts” to justify the project’s adverse effects, while disregarding increasing evidence indicating its lack of economic viability. The Lax Kw’alaams Band also voiced concerns in court filings, stating that the project’s location in their traditional territory poses a threat to their Aboriginal rights and title indefinitely.
Both Indigenous groups assert outstanding Aboriginal title claims for the Mylor Peninsula in British Columbia’s Supreme Court, where a transmission line construction is essential to power the natural gas facility. Neither the government nor the Ksi Lisims project team has responded to the legal claims yet.
The project aims to construct two floating facilities off Pearse Island in northern British Columbia, with a capacity to process two billion cubic feet of gas daily and export 12 million tonnes of LNG annually. Legal challenges were previously filed in British Columbia in September, contesting the provincial government’s decision that the pipeline providing the project had not been substantially started, thus maintaining the validity of the environmental assessment certificate issued in 2014.
In a separate development, Gitanyow hereditary chiefs were unsuccessful in their court challenge against the Ksi Lisims project in September, arguing that they were inadequately consulted. The project is a collaboration between the Nisga’a Nation, Rockies LNG Limited Partnership, and Western LNG, with project assets to be owned and operated by wholly owned subsidiaries of Western LNG, headquartered in Houston, Texas.
