Members of the Tsawwassen First Nation voted against their government building a liquefied natural gas storage and export facility with FortisBC.
Held Wednesday, the vote saw 74 members oppose the concept, representing 53 per cent of votes cast, while 65, or 46 per cent, supported the proposal. There was one rejected ballot. Voter turnout was 48 per cent of eligible TFN Members, including those on and off TFN Lands.
As a consequence, the TFN leadership says it will not be moving forward with any additional discussion regarding the proposed LNG concept.
A 32-hectare industrial site (80-acre) had been identified as the location to build an LNG facility.
The facility would have handled three to five million tonnes annually.
The natural gas to supply the facility would have been transported via an extension of an existing pipeline 10 kilometres away. It would have been purified and liquefied at the facility and stored in tanks until ready for shipping.
The TFN leadership had pledged to uphold strict environmental practices, from extraction of the LNG to the loading onto ships.
More to come.
