Yesterday marked a momentous day for Indigenous Communities in the region, as the Coastal GasLink Pipeline project awarded $620 million in contract work to First Nations communities along the pipeline route in Northern BC.
“This is terrific news,” said Karen Ogen-Toews, CEO of the First Nations LNG Alliance. “When there is a Final Investment Decision, it will mean employment for First Nations. This will give Indigenous people a chance to work towards careers, and not just short-term jobs, which is really important to us.
Through Coastal GasLink, TransCanada Corporation has planned that a 670-km pipeline will carry natural gas from the Dawson Creek area to the proposed LNG Canada plant and export terminal in Kitimat.
TransCanada has already conditionally awarded contracts to construct the proposed pipeline.
The new conditional awards from Coastal GasLink cover the pipeline’s right-of-way clearing, gravel processing, access road development, camp and storage site preparation, camp support services, materials hauling, right-of-way grading, welding, installation, site clean-up, reclamation and other activities.
“This amount of contracting work awarded to First Nations businesses and communities is unprecedented in British Columbia for a pipeline
company and it tells an important story,” said Ogen-Toews. “There is strong First Nations support in BC for responsible LNG development, and for the natural-gas projects and pipelines that will feed the export plants The awards also show how Indigenous people and companies are eager to do business with firms that respect and accommodate Indigenous needs and governance and work with First Nations to deal with potential environmental issues.”
More than one-third of all field work already completed by Coastal GasLink has been conducted by Indigenous people.