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LNG Canada execs coming to city

LNG Canada is in a pair of spotlights this coming week in Prince George.
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LNG Canada is in a pair of spotlights this coming week in Prince George.

The leading proponent in the liquified natural gas (LNG) sector will give two high-profile insights into the first of the long hoped for LNG projects that stand to boost the northern economy in unprecedented ways.

First, the company's external affairs director Susannah Pierce, will be the luncheon keynote speaker at the TrueNorth Business Development Forum (TNBDF) on Tuesday, then company CEO Andy Calitz will be the banquet keynote speaker the same day for the opening of the BC Natural Resources Forum (BCNRF).

The TNBDF is hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and acts as the locally focused opening act each year for the broader BCNRF. They are separate, but complementary.

Pierce will be here for the fourth year in a row for this two-phase conversation. She called the trip to Prince George one of the best public discussions in the province for delving into the details of the natural resource sector, in all its branches.

"I think it's really an opportunity for people with a keen interest in natural resources to meet with each other, learn from each other about these opportunities, and I think even more so today than ever," she said. "We leverage each of our efforts more effectively so the support for the benefits of natural resources can be louder than it ever has been."

The room to which she will be speaking is decidedly centred on how these projects of provincial and national scope can be viewed from a local perspective. Pierce will talk about how this city, located in the middle of the whole LNG Canada plan to extract natural gas in the northeast and ship it to global markets in the northwest.

"For Prince George it has a lot to do with the companies who would have an opportunity to compete for and work on the project, as contracted companies or as individual tradespeople who can work on-site in the various different trades," Pierce said. "Finally, it's about the businesses that have the spinoff benefits of more people working, whether that's your hospitality industry like hotels and restaurants, your various recreational activities, and how those spinoffs produce the full-on, knock-on, multiplier effects of the direct investing, the direct contracting, and the direct employment into the various businesses that benefit from all that."

LNG Canada is grateful for conversations like these interconnected forums, said Pierce, so projects like theirs can have a public airing. It has been difficult to watch the news, in recent weeks, as protesters rally around a small segment of the Wet'suwet'en First Nations who oppose their plans over-speak the majority of Wet'suwet'en people who have worked with them over years to arrive at a consent agreement for their pipeline to go through their territory under carefully stated conditions.

Pierce said LNG Canada's pipeline partner, Coastal GasLink, consulted deeply with both the elected councils and the hereditary leaders of each First Nation along the proposed pipeline route, only moving ahead when agreement had been signed off by both company and community.

"Is there sufficient consultation with hereditary chiefs? The answer to that is, yes there is," she said. "The consultation process Coastal GasLink and LNG Canada both went through for years - not days, years - to get to 25 First Nations signing agreements was a real collaborative effort with both elected and hereditary. And that's something that's been lost in all of this feeding frenzy on protest."

To attend the TNBDF or the BCNRF, visit their respective websites for registration information.