The Pacific Northwest LNG megaproject planned for the west coast will not be going ahead.

Foothills MP John Barlow says a project like Pacific Northwest LNG would have gone a long way to helping Canada make a global impact on emissions and climate change.

"We missed a window, as Canada, to be a major supplier for LNG, especially for Asia," Barlow says. "If we really want to make an impact on global emissions and climate change, if that's our goal, then our best opportunity to have a substantial impact is to be selling our resources, which are developed under the most environmentally friendly, the most stringent regulations in the world, our opportunity is to sell these products, to take China off coal power, take India off coal power."

Barlow says the news about Pacific Northwest LNG is a blow, not just for B.C. but for Canada's economy.

Depressed prices and shifts in the economy are being cited by officials from Petronas and its partners as reasons for not going ahead with the $36 billion project.

Barlow says political uncertainty probably didn't help either.

"You know it has taken them years, if not decades, to try and get this project done and then you see a provincial government in B.C. come forward who has been actively campaigning against these energy projects."

He says big energy producers are among the biggest employers in Canada amongst First Nations communities and there are not a lot of other economic opportunities available to them.

 

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