The Council of Canadians Campbell River chapter held a public forum last night on the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) agenda and fracking in British Columbia.
About 80 people attended the forum that was co-sponsored with the Timberline Earth Club. The gathering featured Council of Canadians organizer Leila Darwish and Dr. Eoin Finn as keynote speakers.
In addition, Darwish spoke to 290 students at two high schools earlier in the day, as well as being interviewed along with Finn by the local community television station. Campbell River chapter activists and Darwish also visited the site of the proposed Discovery LNG terminal.
The Globe and Mail has reported, “Calgary-based Quicksilver wants to build [the Discovery] LNG export terminal north of Campbell River…’The multibillion-dollar project will be designed to take delivery of gas primarily from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin [likely the Horn River basin in northeastern British Columbia] and liquefy it for export to Pacific Rim markets in Asia’, Quicksilver said in its filing [in July 2014] with the National Energy Board.”
The Campbell River Courier-Islander adds, “[The chapter] says that with over 14 LNG export terminals being proposed for the B.C. coast – including a massive LNG plant to be located on the old pulp and paper mill site just north of Campbell River, there is rising opposition from communities across the province as the true impacts of fracking and LNG come to light, and a call for a more sustainable energy future.”
The company wants to start production in 2021 and operate for a 25 year period.
Council of Canadians chapters in British Columbia have organized six public forums in opposition to LNG export terminals and pipelines. Those took place in Ladner (October 22), Powell River (November 2), Courtenay (November 4), Victoria (November 26), Nanaimo (January 28) and now Campbell River (February 11).
The Council of Canadians believes that a ban on the development of LNG terminals and pipelines is necessary in order to respect Indigenous rights, limit greenhouse gas emissions, defend the province’s freshwater sources, protect wild salmon, and protect communities and the coastline.
For more on our opposition to the LNG agenda, please see our campaign web-page here.
Further reading
Council of Canadians opposes LNG agenda in British Columbia (November 2014 blog)
