A conceptual drawing of the proposed fuel plant on the Tk'emlups reserve. (Image Credit: Sc.wenwen Development Corporation)

By Victor Kaisar

New Tk’emlups Fuel Plant

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc seeking input into proposed jet fuel plant from band members

May 27, 2025 | 5:29 PM

TK’EMLUPS — Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (TteS) is seeking input from band members as it continues to discuss whether the proposed 7Mile Renewable Fuels Project “will continue to move forward.”

The proposed refinery is a partnership between Azure Sustainable Fuels, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and the Sc.wenwen Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), formerly the Tk’emlúps Business and Economic Development department.

It would be used to turn vegetable oils into Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which proponents say is already being used by carriers like Air Canada and WestJet.

While announcing an information session for band members on Monday (May 26), Tkemlúps te Secwépemc said there are two other locations being considered for this facility and that only one of the projects will move ahead.

“Now is the time to have your questions answered and provide your feedback on whether Tkemlúps te Secwépemc and the proposed 7Mile Renewable Fuels Project will continue to move forward,” the Band statement said.

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The other two locations being considered are Portage la Prairie, Manitoba and Port Colborne, Ontario. According to federal government data, Azure got $15 million for front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies at all three locations, with $5 million going to each study.

“Some of this work applies to the facility, wherever the location may be (all sites), and some of it is location specific,” Sc.wenwen Economic Development Corporation Manager, Krista Stoesz, told CFJC Today in an email confirming the Kamloops facility was the recipient of similar funding “early in the life of the project.”

In a Jan. 2024 news release, Azure said it was working towards developing a facility that would produce approximately 20,000 barrels of predominantly sustainable aviation fuel per day.

“Our ambition is to develop the first SAF-dedicated renewable fuel production facility of scale in Canada, by utilizing Canadian skillsets and natural resources to achieve first production in 2027,” Azure CEO Douglas Cole said in the release.

“We have established critical partnerships with leaders in their respective industries that are required to successfully construct and operate a facility of this nature. At the same time, we have worked closely with federal, provincial and Indigenous governments to adhere to all regulations and requirements.”

That Azure news release also said that it had partnered with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc “to co-develop a facility on their ancestral lands” and that it was continuing to advance discussions with Indigenous groups in Manitoba and Ontario.

“Azure has sought to maximize optionality by pursuing a multi-site strategy through developing three Canadian SAF-focused renewable fuels production facility sites in parallel,” the company said. “All FEED work for each of the three sites will be complete by the end of 2024, positioning Azure to reach a Final Investment Decision (‘FID’) in the first half of 2025 as to enable an in-service date in 2027.”

Stoesz told CFJC Today that there was some misunderstanding in the community regarding the number of facilities being proposed across Canada, and that only one of the three projects was “ever intented to move forward.”

“For a number of strategic and operational reasons, the B.C. location remains the most desirable of the three,” Stoesz said. “The project location in Tk’emlúps is a desirable site and the partnership with TteS is one of those reasons.”

CFJC Today has also reached out to Azure Sustainable Fuels for more on its plans and the status of the proposed project.

If it moves ahead, the Kamloops facility is slated to rise on a plot of land across the North Thompson River from Westsyde. An exact location wasn’t specified, but it’s expected to be alongside the CN Rail tracks south of Rayleigh.

“We’ve been working with Tk’emlúps since about 2021,” Vanessa Vredenburg, Azure’s Director of Indigenous and Stakeholder Relations, told a Kamloops committee meeting in December.

“Our founders were looking along Google Maps and found this nice chunk of land along the railway and that’s where our partnership kind of started, and it’s really progressed from there.”

Proposed location for the 7Mile Renewable Fuels plant. (tmage Credit: Sc.wén̓wen Economic Development Corporation)

While there has been some pushback from residents in the Westsyde and Rayleigh area owing to concerns about things like pollution, odour and impacts to the environment, others say the project is necessary as it will bring high paying jobs to the area.

According to Vredenburg, the facility is expected to create around 1,500 jobs during construction and about 150 when it is up and running.

Stoesz said Tk’emlúps band members can still have their say into the project if they missed Monday’s information session. While she wouldn’t release details, Stoesz added it was “was well attended,” with nearly 100 attendees either in-person or online.

More details about the proposed project can be found here.