Our Alliance CEO, Karen Ogen-Toews, took part in a panel discussion hosted by the Daily Oil Bulletin. It looked at access (or lack of access) to capital for Indigenous communities looking to take an equity stake in LNG projects.
Among other things, she said: “I think if we’re wanting to promote and encourage First Nations to have equity ownership and to buy in and have the opportunity to do that, then we need to be able to provide the access to capital to do that. I think that’s really important.”
And on potential LNG exports from the East Coast: “I think there’s a huge opportunity . . . and I think that if it’s going to help countries get off of coal — if we can bring those greenhouse gas emissions down — then we’re doing our jobs, not only as Indigenous people but as a country.”
Indigenous entrepreneur Chris Sankey, senior partner in Nation Origination Ventures Group Inc., looked in another direction: “We’re going to have an opportunity to access southeast Asia’s markets. Prince Rupert is destined to be the home of the low-carbon port. We have access, we’re quick to the Asia-Pacific at between 10 and 14 days. We’re the fastest growing port in the North American seaboard.”
The full discussion is on the Daily Oil Bulletin (subscription) site at http://ow.ly/oUUy50JP8u9
- Karen also took part in a Canadian Gas Association webinar with Chris Sankey and Shannon Joseph of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Topics: Indigenous leadership in natural-gas projects, and how LNG can help energy and environmental goals. Watch here: http://ow.ly/Ff2650JRtTH
First Nations and the energy transition
Market-watchers see a good-news future for LNG, and for our West Coast LNG exports to Asia (which we can deliver more cheaply than US exporters, who have to spend more time and more money moving LNG through the Panama Canal; costs we do not face.) So LNG Canada, for one, is already exploring expansion of its export plant at Kitimat.
But we and others still look on LNG as a transition fuel. It can replace coal as a fuel for generating electricity and replace oil in the world’s ships, but cleaner fuel such as hydrogen, and renewable green energies, must and will have their day. So will carbon-capture projects.
As of today, 39 nations, including Canada, have hydrogen strategies. And several First Nations have been quick to see a future in and for hydrogen and for carbon-capture projects.
- Read more in our blog: http://ow.ly/nHSu50JNsN5
Thumbs up for JP Gladu
Indigenous business leader JP Gladu earned much online traffic, and much praise, for his guest column in The Toronto Star: “Hollywood should get the facts and show respect to Indigenous peoples.”
Sniping at celebrities Leo DiCaprio, Neil Young, Mark Ruffalo and Jane Fonda, Gladu wrote:
“Infatuation with stardom means Hollywood pronouncements receive outsized media attention. A celebrity with few, if any connections to Canada, let alone to Indigenous communities, gets 100 times more coverage than a First Nations chief speaking on behalf of her community. It hurts that the commentary can be so ill-informed and destructive of what we have worked toward.”
And Gladu closed with this: “We have worked hard to achieve the power to manage our lands and determine our future, spent years in court securing our rights. . . . We did not undertake this struggle only to be lectured by non-Indigenous celebrities who have never met us and did not even visit our communities before telling us what to do.”
• Read the column here: http://ow.ly/ZkxI5
ALSO IN THE NEWS
- Coastal GasLink kicks off ‘the busiest summer construction season yet.’ ly/chVL50JL9Cb
- Poll: 58% of Canadians support the export of LNG to help Europe: http://ow.ly/7kuU50JNt9V
- LNG Canada begins search for employees: http://ow.ly/K5bZ50JNtaZ
- Kitselas Nation opens training centre that includes Red Seal training in skilled trades: http://ow.ly/psi850JOBua
- Woodfibre LNG gives $110,000 to Squamish non-profits, nearly doubling the amount donated in 2021: ly/B06H50JKvwx
- NL LNG project aimed for exports to Europe in 2030, but now says it hopes for 2029 or possibly 2028: http://www.lng-nl.com/
DATES
- Nation2Nation community events will return, with two sessions: Terrace on Thursday Sept. 22, and Prince Rupert on Thursday Oct. 20. Registration details will be coming soon at https://nation2nation.ca/
- The First Nation’s Major Projects Coalition has set its 2023 Industry Engagement Event (“The Values Driven Economy Conference”) for April 24-25 in Vancouver: http://ow.ly/T4Il50JNtoe
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