West Coast Olefins has listened to concerns about building a $5.6 billion petrochemical plant in the Prince George airshed.
Earlier this year the company announced it had secured a site in the BCR Industrial Site. Last night on a Facebook live townhall, CEO Ken James said company is relocating to McLeod Lake.
“We’ve had a great relationship develop with Chief Chingee and the McLeod Lake Band,” James said during the townhall hosted by the BC Resources Coalition. “We’re very excited to be working north with them.”
He said the company isn’t going to build a plants where the community isn’t going to welcome them.
“We heard many people from PACHA saying this is too close to Prince George,” he said, adding he lived in Prince George in the 1970s so he understands the airshed issues. “So we decided to move it further north, move it out of the Prince George airshed.”
He said moving the plant north will eliminate the need to bring a pipeline into Prince George, but it will add an issue of moving workers to and from the plant. Earlier this year the Lheidli T’enneh stated it does not endorsed the project.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” James said of the move.
James said a final investment decision on the plant is expected late this year or early next. In addition he said the company will use local contractors as much as possible.
Posted by BC Resources Coalition on Thursday, May 7, 2020