Construction is underway on a multibillion-dollar British Columbia power line featured on the federal government’s national-interest list.
The federal and provincial governments say the North Coast Transmission Line will strengthen Canada’s energy security and support new mines and industry. But some observers say it could also lead to disputes over its climate impact, who has authority to approve construction and whether taxpayers should help fund private industrial projects.
The line’s main industrial customer is expected to be Ksi Lisims LNG, a proposed terminal that would use electricity to chill natural gas into liquid for export. The first phase will run northwest from the Prince George area in BC’s central Interior to near Fraser Lake. A second phase would extend the line farther northwest to Terrace, in the province’s North Coast region.
Ksi Lisims has signed an agreement with BC Hydro for up to 600 megawatts of electricity (enough to power about 270,000 homes).
The federal and BC government have committed $3.9 billion to the first two phases, which BC Hydro estimates will cost about $6 billion. The Canada Infrastructure Bank has also loaned BC Hydro $139.5 million for early work.
“A primary concern about the North Coast Transmission Line is that it prioritizes using low-emissions energy like hydro for high-emissions industries like methane and fracked gas,” said Kiki Wood, Stand.earth’s senior oil and gas campaigner.
The climate impact of LNG includes gas extraction, pipeline transportation, liquefaction, shipping, regasification and final use. Methane can escape into the atmosphere before natural gas is burned, through accidental or intentional releases — a risk identified in a 2023 BC Hydro-sponsored report and illustrated by recent infrared footage showing invisible plumes at LNG Canada.
Wood said some communities may support LNG and its associated infrastructure because it is the only major source of jobs and investment being offered to them, leaving them with few alternatives for building their local economies. “They deserve better than that kind of false choice,” she said.
Isabel Siu-Zmuidzinas, a climate campaigner with the Wilderness Committee, said the project is being presented through its “energy sovereignty” message — as a way for Canada to rely less on the US, even though its clearest proposed customer is Ksi Lisims LNG, a terminal being developed with Texas-based Western LNG, whose floating production units are planned for construction in South Korea.
“The beneficiaries of this are American billionaires and not the people living here,” Siu-Zmuidzinas said.
Public money should be redirected toward projects that employ Canadian workers, lower household costs and strengthen services for people, she said. The funds should be used for affordable housing, hospitals, heat pumps and public transit in rural and remote communities, as BC faces more severe wildfires and extreme heat.
Canada’s Changing Climate Report, released last week, says Canada’s fire season is already longer and will continue to lengthen as temperatures rise. In Alberta and BC, hot, dry and windy conditions that fuel wildfires have increased and extreme fire weather is expected to become more common and more intense across most of the country.
The report says the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide is unequivocally linked to fossil-fuel burning and human-caused land-use change.
Jesse Stoeppler, co-executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition and a member of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan Nations, said BC residents should also watch the province’s next update on natural-gas royalties — the money companies pay for extracting gas — because it will show how much revenue the industry is actually expected to generate. The province recently acknowledged that errors had overstated projected gas-royalty revenue by nearly $1.5 billion over five years. Treaty 8 First Nations receive a share of the gas royalties collected by the province.
Stoeppler said this is the same government approach that led to the years-long Coastal GasLink dispute.
That pipeline carries natural gas from northeastern BC to LNG Canada’s export terminal in Kitimat. Elected First Nations councils along the route signed agreements with the company, but Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs opposed the pipeline’s passage through their traditional territory. During construction, the RCMP enforced court injunctions against land defenders, leading to arrests and protests across Canada.
“I would go as far as saying that it’s gotten worse,” Stoeppler said, noting the North Coast line is already moving ahead while Indigenous nations whose territories could be affected are still working out who has the authority to make decisions about it.
BC Hydro says 14 First Nations, including the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, could become 50/50 equity partners in the line and share in long-term returns. Stoeppler said the proposed ownership model does not answer whether Indigenous nations can meaningfully influence the decision to build the line in the first place.
“How can we deem someone a decision-maker if that only lasts, or is being honoured, when the pre-formulated answer is yes?” he said.
Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer.
September 11th 2026
