For years, B.C. Premier Christy Clark has been under immense pressure to deliver on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) promises that formed the backbone of her 2013 election campaign.
Back then, the Liberals predicted LNG could create almost 40,000 construction jobs in BC, 75,000 full-time jobs once in operation, and much more.
“It’s no fantasy,” read the Liberal platform of 2013. “We can create $1 trillion in economic activity and create the BC Prosperity Fund with $100 billion over 30 years.”
But four years later, the opportunity to cash in on LNG exports to Asia (Read more…) dissolved, while the $100 million currently sitting in the Prosperity Fund has been drawn not from natural gas, but from sources like the premiums for the BC Medical Services Plan.
On the cusp of the 2017 election, just one relatively tiny LNG plant (Woodfibre LNG), owned by Singapore tycoon Sukanto Tanoto, has committed to move forward. Meanwhile the long-time front-runner, Pacific Northwest LNG planned near Prince Rupert, continues to stall despite receiving federal environmental approval in September 2016. And last week, Royal Dutch Shell announced it’s abandoning its Prince Rupert LNG project.
In hopes of luring major LNG producers to our shores, the BC Liberals have offered perks and subsidies of unprecedented generosity. What follows is an incomplete list of the public giveaways offered to spur the creation of a B.C. LNG industry. Taken all together, the largesse of these incentives prompts a disturbing question: at what point do the perks offered by government negate the public benefit of owning the resource in the first place?