While some vocal opponents of Woodfibre LNG expressed disappointment and anger over the federal environmental assessment certificate for the project, plenty in Squamish were heartened by the news on March 18.
Dale Horth said he supports the $1.6-billion liquefied natural gas plant project because it will bring industrial jobs to Squamish – and he hopes to get one of them.
“With my heavy equipment operator experience, my logging and construction experience, I raise my arm. I want a job over there building it,” he said, adding he also has oil and gas training and certifications.
Woodfibre LNG representatives have said the project will create about 650 jobs per year during a two-year construction period and roughly 100 full-time jobs once it is fully operational. The company will also have office administration positions in Squamish.
Horth’s previous experience working in the oil and gas industry convinced him the environmental concerns about the processing and export facility – to be licensed to export about 2.1 million tonnes of LNG per year for 25 years – are unfounded, he said.
“I have been on several gas plants that produce liquefied natural gas and the operations are very clean, and the equipment is all top-notch,” he said. “I have seen moose, elk and bears wandering around, not bothered.”
Evan Drygas, director of pro-LNG group Sustainable Squamish and facilitator of the Yes to LNG Facebook page, said a majority in Squamish support the project.
“Our community’s support for Woodfibre LNG was evident during the last municipal election, where 60 per cent of the total votes cast were for candidates who were in favour of the project. On social media, pages in support of Woodfibre LNG have more likes than pages that are opposed to it,” Drygas wrote in an email to The Squamish Chief.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna made the right decision to approve the project with conditions because Woodfibre LNG will “truly produce some of the least carbon-intensive liquefied natural gas in the world,” he said.
Drygas added that the municipal, provincial and federal taxes generated by the project, which Woodfibre LNG estimated at $86.5 million for each of the project’s 25 years in operation, will be a substantial benefit.
Longtime Squamish resident Doug Brubacher said projects like Woodfibre LNG have many levels of approvals to go through before they become a reality, so he was pleased to hear the environment minister had granted the company a conditional environmental certificate, marking the end of an over two-year environmental assessment process.
“Whether it is financially viable right now, who knows? But we know darn well two years from now, fuel prices will be back up, gas prices will be back up because it is all cyclical,” he said.
Brubacher believes the project will bring some well paying jobs and is on land that has been heavy industrial for more than 100 years.
If the LNG plant is not built, then something else, perhaps worse for the environment, could come in its place, he said.
Brubacher said it is difficult to voice support for the project publicly in Squamish.
Of the dozen known supporters of the project contacted by The Squamish Chief, only three were willing to go on record.
“You have to be very careful who you confess to. You don’t even have to be in favour of it, just by not being against it is committing some kind of a moral crime,” Brubacher said. “I don’t know whether [those opposed] are a majority or minority or what they are, but they have positioned themselves as the voice of Squamish whether they are or not, and you almost don’t dare let your feelings be known if you don’t agree with them.”
A final investment decision by Woodfibre LNG is anticipated in 2016, with construction beginning shortly after, according to the company.
