Image Credit: CFJC Today

By James Peters

Teck Frontier

‘Crisis point’: Kamloops MP says Teck Frontier cancellation speaks volumes about investment in Canada

Feb 24, 2020 | 12:39 PM

OTTAWA — A day after Teck Resources pulled out of a planned mega-project in northern Alberta, the MP for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo says she is worried about the future of major investment in Canada.

In a letter to federal environment minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Teck CEO and President Don Lindsay said the company is withdrawing its environmental application for the Frontier project.

The mine was expected to create thousands of jobs in Alberta’s battered oilsands region.

Cathy McLeod is the Conservative Party of Canada’s natural resources critic. She says she worries about both the implications of the decision and its ripple effects.

“First of all, devastation, and a concern that our country is putting itself in a position where we can’t get anything built anymore,” McLeod told CFJC Today.

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“We’re putting in a request for an emergency debate and we look forward to seeing what the response is. But we’ve hit a crisis point,” McLeod continued. “My biggest issue is, it doesn’t seem to matter what the project is, what the process is — the current government is listening to the activists and, even when they’re in a minority, they’re shutting things down.”

In his letter to Wilkinson, Lindsay cited the desire by companies to invest in countries who have reconciled their positions on resource extraction and climate change.

“I thought that was a very unusual statement,” said McLeod. “We have high standards. We’ve moved incredibly in terms of where Alberta’s gone and the amount of carbon emissions [generated by] the oilsands. According to them, that was part of their rationale. It doesn’t make sense.”

Teck’s decision comes amidst ongoing protests against the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline proposed to run through Wet’suwet’en traditional territory in northern B.C. McLeod believes it has more to do with the company reading “the tea leaves.”

“It’s very suspicious timing,” McLeod said. “We look at what’s happening in the broader public. We look at demonstrations happening today. We look at Liberal members of government taking ads out against this particular project. Any company would have looked to get the decision and then, if prices aren’t right, they would then make a business decision. But this is a very dramatic decision.”

Wilkinson and Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan released a joint statement in response to Teck’s move.

“Important parts of Canada’s economy have been built on our natural resource sector and the workers across the country who have powered it for generations,” the statement read. “Our government is committed to developing our natural resources sustainably and to creating good, middle class jobs. A strong economy and clean environment must go hand in hand.”

According to McLeod, that strikes a different tone than the minority Liberal government’s members have been giving off.

“I look at the statement by the minister of natural resources and, quite frankly, that was not the message we were hearing from Liberal MP after Liberal MP, that they did not want this project to go forward,” said McLeod.

“They haven’t sat at the table for ten years and then, all of the sudden, pulled it in the last four days for no reason.”