Action in Time

A press release from the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee

Do you want dangerous LNG Tankers daily on the Fraser River, in Burrard Inlet, and through the
Salish Sea?

Over a thousand public submissions voicing concerns have been ignored and buried.

Ignoring due, and legal, process, the Governments of Canada and B.C. refuse to appropriately
call for a federal Review Panel Environmental Assessment of plans for massive, full-scale LNG
operations, including an LNG Marine Terminal, at Tilbury Island, Delta.

Through a sneaky process called “Project Creep”, the Governments of Canada and B.C. have
allowed a small LNG operation at Tilbury Island to gradually expand without any environmental
assessments.

In 2015, the federal National Energy Board granted Tilbury LNG a licence to export 3.5 million
tonnes of LNG annually. Through Orders-in-Council in 20134 and 20145, the B.C. Government
permitted a 46-times increase in liquefaction and a new storage tank that almost tripled LNG
storage capacity.

Now the Governments are saying plans for a massive increase to full-scale LNG liquefaction and
storage is a separate project from the planned LNG marine terminal on the adjacent property,
with the same project owner, FortisBC. This Project-Splitting is to avoid the highest level of
assessment, a federal Review Panel Environmental Assessment. The projects are interdependent
with plans for LNG tankers daily transporting Tilbury LNG for local bunkering and for export.

A report from the Boundary Bay Conservation Committee, addressed to Hon. Steven Guilbeault, Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change. You can read it here (PDF).

They are concerned that due process has not been followed creating the potential for dangerous and damaging consequences to communities, as well as the Lower Fraser River and Salish Sea ecosystems.

Excerpt: “By approving the B.C. Substitution Assessment process, the federal government is avoiding a proper cumulative effects assessment of federal responsibilities: protection of federal waterways: impacts to fish habitat and populations; species at risk; shipping; transportation; dumping at sea; dredging of federal waterways; federal energy laws and regulations; safety; and emissions. These are the issues identified in public comments to the process and, summarily dismissed in responses as beyond the scope and responsibility of the Proponent.”