Good to see British Columbia Premier David Eby firmly and frequently supporting liquefied natural gas development in BC these days.
Not the easiest political path for him, given that some strong NDP members oppose fossil-fuel development. But a welcome one, as BC, Canada and their economies need all the help LNG exports can provide.
As The Vancouver Sun said in a headline in July: “B.C. Premier David Eby completes transition from LNG doubter with victory tour of Kitimat plant.”
That plant, of course, was the new LNG Canada operation. And Eby had this to say: ““I am so excited about this project and what it means for Canada, what it means for B.C.”
He went on: “Everybody knows that we have to transition away from fossil fuels, but, in the meantime, we should be using the lowest-carbon fossil fuels possible.
“The LNG that comes from this site is 60-percent lower-carbon than the average LNG plant in the world. It is 40-per-cent better in terms of carbon content than the best plants in the world.
“When we’re shipping to Japan, to Korea, to Malaysia, to China, it means that these countries are able to meaningfully reduce their carbon pollution and their carbon footprint.”
Eby included a message to BC opponents of LNG development:
“We could leave Japan and Korea and Malaysia to rely on imports from Qatar, or from the U.S.,” said the premier. “It would require longer journeys by ship, resulting in more marine emissions. It would be higher-carbon LNG, resulting in more carbon pollution. And then here at home in Canada, we would have fewer jobs, less resources for public services.
“Japan, Malaysia, Korea, China are not eliminating fossil fuels overnight. If they are using LNG, they should be using the lowest-carbon LNG in the world. They should be using Canadian LNG that’s produced ethically, that promotes environmental protection, as well as high-quality labour standards and safety standards.”
And he said he hopes to see LNG Canada’s partners decide to double the capacity of the operation. “I’m very much looking forward to be able to come back here to make the announcement about LNG Canada Phase 2.”
In a later headline, in September, The Vancouver Sun said: “David Eby’s pro-LNG stand is a turnaround from the NDP of old.’
That was on a column by Vaughn Palmer: “Premier David Eby went all in this week in support of the Nisga’a Nation-backed Ksi Lisims LNG project, discounting concerns about the impact on the environment and neighbouring Indigenous nations.”
And Palmer quoted Eby as saying: “We are not going to stand by and let this opportunity pass us and watch, literally just down the road, the Americans build a giant plant to lower standards, without the protections that B.C. offers, and deprive local First Nations, local communities, British Columbians, and Canadians of $17 billion in benefits.”
Later, at the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Victoria, the premier announced that he would soon introduce legislation “to make sure we build the North Coast transmission line.” That power line will serve BC projects that include LNG, and, he said, will “strengthen our partnerships with First Nations.”
And in an interview on David Herle’s ‘Herle Burly’ podcast Eby said: “I come from a party that’s always a bit torn when it comes to resource development. We support the resource development. we want it done. But we’re also passionate environmentalists and concerned about climate change and protecting wild spaces and those other things as well. And so I can empathize with those tensions that are pulling in different directions.
“But what we’re trying to build . . . is a durable and ongoing support for resource development by incorporating what we feel are New Democrat values, but that are universal Canadian values, into that work.
“So when we’re doing LNG; that we’re electrifying, we’re requiring that the new proposals that come forward are electrified to minimize the emissions. Then we’re able to say with a straight face that this is the lowest-carbon LNG in the world. So that when we go to Japan and Korea and they say ‘We’re trying to drive down emissions, we would prefer to buy BC LNG because it’s lower emission,’ then we can say to ourselves, OK, we’re displacing LNG from other sites.
“So when Trump says we’re going to build as fast as possible an LNG plant in Alaska with minimal environmental oversight, and all these other pieces, instead we can say we’ve done this project. It’s an Indigenous project. It’s lifting people out of poverty. It’s creating opportunity for Canadians. It’s lower carbon than the competitors. and it’s servicing those markets and we can be proud of that.”
In Business in Vancouver, commentator Rob Shaw wrote: “Eby has become an LNG convert, hyping up the benefits of fracking B.C.’s abundant natural gas reserves, shipping it via pipelines to coastal terminals, liquefying it at extremely cold temperatures and loading it all onto tankers to sell to Asian markets.”
And: “Once dismissively derided as ‘a cloud of pixie dust’ by the BC NDP, LNG may turn out to be just the political boon the Eby government desperately needs to kick-start an ailing provincial economy.”
This in a time of the Eby government’s hefty (and growing) budget deficits, and as BC and Canada are hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and trade wars.
We especially note, too, what Eva Clayton, president of the Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government, said of Ksi Lisims LNG: “This is what reconciliation looks like: a modern Treaty Nation once on the sidelines of our economy, now leading a project that will help write the next chapter of a stronger, more resilient Canada.”
That was in a BC government news release in which Eby and two cabinet ministers announced their approval for Ksi Lisims LNG, and the premier hailed “strong partnerships with First Nations.”
And as our Alliance CEO Karen Ogen says: “Canadian LNG is a direct route to jobs and benefits for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike. . . . Canadian LNG is Indigenous LNG, and that is good for the world and good for all of us here.”
BC Premier David Eby, praising the Nisga’a Nation’s Ksi Lisims LNG project. At right in the photo, Eva Clayton, president, Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government
(Posted here 30 September 2025)
