Elevate your local knowledge

Select Region

Selecting your primary region ensures you get the stories that matter to you first.

FORT NELSON, B.C. – British Columbia government officials have been kicked out of a First Nations forum on liquefied natural gas over the government’s decision to exempt most of the gas produced in the province from mandatory environmental assessment.

The chief of the Fort Nelson First Nation, organizer of today’s summit, asked the bureaucrats to leave this morning.

On Monday, the Liberal government made changes that mean plants that produce so-called sweet gas will no longer face an automatic environmental assessment as of April 28.

About 99 per cent of the natural gas produced in B.C. is sweet gas, as opposed to sulphur-containing sour gas.

Environment Minister Mary Polak says the changes move toward a more practical review system based on emissions and not the size of the processing plant, but critics call it environmental deregulation.

Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council Chief Terry Teegee says bands feel blindsided by the change and have sent a request to Premier Christy Clark to meet and discuss the amendments.

News from © The Canadian Press, . All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.