The proposal for a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Saanich Inlet continues to make the news and is proving to be ‘a gas’ for anyone interested in local politics, historical treaties or fossil fuel energy markets.

Bamberton industrial site with Saanich Inlet in the background. Photo by Tricia Thomas

In early March, four Saanich chiefs came out in opposition to plans by the partnership between Steelhead LNG and Malahat First Nation and demanded that any operations around the project stop immediately.

The proposed facility would be located at the Bamberton lands on Saanich Inlet, a property that Malahat Nation purchased last year. Six million tonnes of the gas would be produced for export to Asia each year.

When the National Energy Board gave the project an export licence last October, Steelhead CEO Nigel Kuzemko acknowledged his company was still at the beginning of a long process involving environmental approval and consultations with First Nations.

That process has become even stickier now that the Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tsawout and Tseycum First Nations have announced their total rejection to the plan. The chiefs say the export license was issued without any notice to them, and that the project goes against their nations’ rights to hunt and fish, as outlined in their pre-confederation treaty with the Crown in 1852.

“The Saanich Inlet has been our home for thousands of years,” a statement said. “The inlet is a critical source of food, recreation and ceremony. The mountains that surround the Saanich Inlet are our sacred places. Past industrial activity damaged the Inlet and we celebrate the signs of recovery over the past few years.”