I live on Howe Sound in lovely Lions Bay. I have lived my entire life in British Columbia, growing up in Vancouver and spending much of my boyhood on this lovely fjord.

Howe Sound belongs to all of us. It had been all but destroyed by industry until 20 years ago when rehabilitation was started with the closing of mills and Britannia Mines. Thanks to the work of citizen/volunteers  it was enormously successful. We now have the salmon runs dramatically increased, herring runs back to where they used to be, and killer whales, which were so prevalent when I was a boy but had all but disappeared, now going past my house regularly.

The Fraser River estuary scarcely needs any introduction. Suffice it to say that this glorious river is the number one salmon habitat in the world and nowhere are these marvellous fish more vulnerable than in the estuary. The governments have all but approved 200 more or less tankers and barges carrying LNG into and out of this estuary. They intend to skip an environmental assessment altogether, yet, thanks to citizen efforts, have been inundated with demands for a proper public hearing.

They don’t really care about us

It is indeed bad enough that the National Energy Board has issued export licences for tankers travelling these routes, as ever-ignorant of British Columbia is fully in favour, but as you’ll see from the Wilderness Committee’s media release which follows, the feds took exactly the opposite position on the east coast!

Suspicions confirmed! Ottawa does discriminate against BC.

Because of this unbelievable turn of events, I wrote a letter to John Weston, our Tory MP.

First, here is the Wilderness Committee’s statement:

The Wilderness Committee is calling attention to the federal government’s double standards regarding the safety of LNG shipments along Canada’s coastline.

The federal government has actively fought against the construction of an American LNG terminal known as the “Downeast LNG Project.” If constructed, this project would see LNG carrier ships pass through New Brunswick’s Head Harbour Passage.

Canadian Ambassador to the United States Gary Doer has outlined Canada’s “strong concerns” around Downeast LNG in two letters to US regulators, pointing to the serious environmental, navigational and safety risks of the project.

Contrarily in BC, American company WesPac Midstream was granted an export licence by Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) on May 7th for its proposed LNG terminal on the Fraser River – a river that is home to one of the largest salmon runs in the world. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) is currently considering the need for an Environmental Assessment (EA) of the project.

To date, no federal government representative has expressed concerns with sending up to 120 LNG tanker vessels annually into highly populated areas of Richmond and Delta, BC.

“Our federal government is treating us west coasters like second-class citizens,” said Eoin Madden, the Wilderness Committee’s Climate Campaigner. “This kind of LNG project was considered unacceptable for New Brunswick, but it doesn’t seem to pose a problem for the government when it will sit on the banks of the world’s greatest salmon river.”

The Wilderness Committee has produced a map detailing the public safety risk associated the WesPac project, identifying industry-defined LNG tanker “hazard zones” that would impact communities if a tanker on the route were to be ignited. There are three hazard zones – zone one posing the biggest threat to human life.

“The federal government opposed Downeast LNG to protect what they called a ‘unique and highly productive marine ecosystem’ off the New Brunswick coast,” said Madden. “If they want to see a unique and productive ecosystem, they should come on over and check out the Fraser River.” The Wilderness Committee will continue to work to protect the Fraser River from all fossil fuel shipments. The organization will be calling on the federal government to conduct a cumulative impact assessment of the combined effects of coal, LNG, tar sands and aviation fuel projects proposed for this vital salmon river.

Rafe calls out Howe Sound MP

Now, here is the letter I sent to John Weston both at his parliamentary address and personal address 10 days ago. I have not received a reply. 

Dear Mr. Weston,

Below you will find a release from the Wilderness Committee stating unequivocally that your government has banned LNG tankers on the East Coast while permitting them, indeed encouraging them, on the West Coast. They are banned on the Atlantic coast because they pose a serious danger. Evidently Mr. Harper doesn’t believe they pose the same danger on our coast.

This is of particular interest to residents of your constituency. It is not a new story, having been broken originally by Eoin Finn and I have dealt with it in columns myself. It is now, however, of immediate importance, since your government and the provincial government are bent on approving the Woodfibre LNG plant with consequent LNG tanker traffic down Howe Sound and have approved similar traffic on the Fraser River, one of the world’s most bountiful salmon rivers.

It is my intention to write an article, for publication, a week tomorrow, stating categorically that the Conservative government, your government, actively and dangerously discriminates against the West Coast generally and the Howe Sound and Fraser River areas specifically. I don’t wish to do this without giving you the opportunity of refuting the obvious inference that this is accurate.

I would be pleased to hear from you as soon as possible.

Yours very truly,

Rafe Mair

Try standing up for your constituents

Let’s look at what we are asking Mr. Weston to do.

He’s been our Member of Parliament for eight years. His record in standing up for his constituents has been appalling. On the particular issue of Woodfibre LNG, Weston did not seek the opinions of his constituents – quite the opposite. He made it clear from the beginning that he couldn’t care less what we thought but that he was in favour of development, so was the prime minister, and that was that. Moreover he tried to throw his weight around and get the West Vancouver Council to change their minds from opposing this proposition to supporting it. He got a unanimous second prize from that doughty Council on that argument.

Weston’s constituency includes the western part of West Vancouver, the Sea-to-Sky area, and the Sunshine Coast. The opposition to Woodfibre LNG is a very strong indeed. In fact, it’s difficult to find anyone who favours it other than the deceitful shills for Woodfibre LNG called Resource Works and so far as I can determine from reading their bumph and speeches, they’ve not told the truth on any material fact yet. (See previous columns).

Woodfibre’s PR flacks hit the spin cycle

In yet another propaganda email recently issued to his followers, Resource Works’ spokesman Stewart Muir, amongst other things, called our group “well-funded”; whereas we’re  a group of volunteers, spending our own time and money, with only the occasional help from fundraisers. I tell you this because this billion dollar enterprise, with its high-priced lackeys in Resource Works, not only “money whips” us but has the nerve to denigrate honest, decent, concerned citizens spending their own time and money standing against a huge company and two governments hand-in-glove with the corporate world. Incidentally, Muir was once a Vancouver Sun editor which to me, at any rate, explains a lot.

Why do British Columbians deserve less?

Let’s return to Mr. Weston.

All we have asked our Member of Parliament to do is threefold: First, take all our concerns about Woodfibre LNG to the prime minister and the Government of Canada and let them know that there are thousands of decent British Columbians who want this project stopped. Ask the PM why he is dealing with a crook, a tax evader and despoiler of tropical forests nonpareil. Ask the PM to google Woodfibre owner Sukanto Tanoto and follow the links to the Guardian Newspaper and thereon and tell us why he is to be our partner.

Secondly, ask Mr. Harper why he is uncaring about residents in allowing LNG tanker traffic through Howe Sound and the Fraser River where irrefutable scientific evidence makes it clear that both are far too dangerous. Both the Wilderness Committee and ourselves can provide charts.

In the case of Howe Sound, in transit to the ocean, LNG tankers from Squamish would pass within unsafe distances from the populations of West Vancouver Lions Bay and Bowen Island. All 6 Municipal Councils around the Sound have passed motions objecting to the Woodfibre LNG proposal.

Thirdly, now that the government has essentially made its decision, we have asked Mr. Weston to explain to us, on behalf of the government of Canada, why there is one rule for Atlantic Canada and another one for British Columbia.

Surely, being an MP is more than chasing down missing pension checks or seeing that constituents have a tour of Parliament when visiting Ottawa.

In essence, Weston is receiving some $175,000 per year not to consult his constituents, not take their concerns to the prime minister and cabinet to demand answers on our behalf, not to support the municipal councils in his riding, and not to give a damn about anything except his own reelection.

To put it bluntly, Woodfibre LNG affects every person living in his constituency. We have, on clear scientific evidence, excellent reason to worry about the lives and safety of our families. Surely to God, what I have said above, which I believe would be endorsed by a large majority of Weston’s constituents, is not too much to ask of a man highly paid to be the liaison between the peasants their political masters.    

John Weston will, in my opinion, be slaughtered in the next  election, but of what consolation is that if the pall of impending disaster remains?

As I have written here recently, our path to safety for our families and communities is civil disobedience and that is what the uncaring bastards will have.

This article is republished with permission from The ECOreport.

UPDATE: Following complaints that the CEAA email system for public comments on the project has been out of commission throughout the 20-day comment period, the window for feedback has been extended until June 24

Building a major LNG terminal in Delta would have a big  impact on the mouth of the Fraser River.  The diagram at the top of this page shows how LNG tankers would come into, and leave, the proposed WesPack Tilbury Marine Jetty. Even with the help of tugboats, they need most of the Fraser River’s width to turn around.

The National Energy Board has already granted an export license for a facility that could bring up to 120 LNG tankers and 90 LNG barges to this terminal every year. In the US, LNG proponents need to assess potential hazards all along LNG tanker routes, but the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is considering waiving an environmental assessment. The public comment period on this project is almost over – citizens have two days left to ask for an environmental review.

The above map, from Real LNG Hearings.com, shows the extent of the hazard area if there was an explosion. Note the red line, which goes out the Fraser and along the tanker route. This is a band 500 meters wide depicting: “extreme hazard of combustion and thermal damage from pool fire if evaporating LNG is ignited.  Cryogenic burns and structural damage from exposure to supercooled LNG. Asphyxiation hazard for those exposed to expanding LNG vapor plume.” Though the degree of danger is less, there could be additional explosions anywhere within the blue zone if the LNG vapour cloud makes contact with a source of ignition. 

Said Kevin Washbrook for Voters Taking Action on Climate Change:

[quote]Whether we’re LNG supporters or not, we probably all agree that major projects like this need careful review.  However in this case public notification has been negligible, the comment period is absurdly short, and fundamentally important questions  — like whether it makes any sense to build a LNG terminal on a narrow, heavily trafficked river — haven’t even been asked.[/quote]

Citizens can write to federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq via the Real LNG Hearings website, to require a proper level of LNG risk assessment is done in BC.

More detailed information available here:

• The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency website
• http://reallnghearings.org/
• CSC’s “Retired Navy Captain torpedoes LNG lobby’s tanker safety story” – by Rafe Mair

For all the fanfare of yesterday’s press conference, you’d think Premier Christy Clark would have some big, new development to announce for her much-vaunted but yet-to-be-built LNG industry. Sorry folks, nothing to see here.

All Clark had to offer was warmed up leftovers from the umpteen previous press conferences, media advisories and political speeches she’s been making for the past several years. Still no final investment decision from Malaysian energy giant Petronas – only “the beginning of the company’s final decision path toward an investment decision”, whatever the heck that means. The “path” to any real bucks being forked out by a single one of the 18 companies and global consortia proposing LNG plants is proving to be a long and winding road.

Are we there yet?

For years now, we’ve watched the likes of Chevron and Petronas punt their promised final investment decisions to next quarter, next year, some vaguely defined point in the future – while many others have outright fallen by the wayside (BG Group, Apache, Encana, EOG to name a few). But we never seem to get there.

And what if we did ever get there? At this point, after all the slashing of royalties and taxes, all the gutting of environmental protections, all the deals with China, India and Malaysia to supply the labour via foreign temporary workers, what’s actually left for the people of BC?

Take your ball and go home

In her press conference yesterday, Clark boasted that the “memorandum of understanding” with Petronas locks in low royalty and tax rates for years to come. This is supposed to be good news for the people of BC?

As I noted back when Petronas CEO Shamsul Abbas took the stage at a glitzy, taxpayer-funded BC LNG conference last year – to lecture us about not “killing the goose that lays the golden egg” – if these are the only terms under which the likes of Petronas will come set up shop here, then we don’t need them. It’s as if they’re saying, “Cut your public benefits and environmental standards to zero, or we’ll take our ball and go home.” Well, take your bloody ball and go home then.

It’s not all about money

And this is all assuming that with enough money on the table (which of course there isn’t), we’d go for this deal. Well, increasingly, the public and First Nations beg to differ. Just look at the Lax Kw’alaams Band and their recent rejection of an unprecedented bag of loot – $1.15 BILLION and $100 million worth of crown land. Apparently, there’s more to money for some of us – like protecting wild salmon that would be severly threatened by Petronas’ proposed plant on top of the Skeena River eestuary.

That’s what yesterday’s announcement was really about: quelling investor fears over the very public face plant that was the failed Lax Kw’alaams deal. Except that Clark has nothing meaningful or new to offer. And she’s panicking now. After all the big promises of a $100 Billion “Prosperity Fund” in the last election – the thing that vaulted her past the NDP, long favoured in the polls – even she now must realize that it’s time to put up or shut up (well, we can dream on the latter)

Yet that’s looking less and less likely. Her other favourite horse – tax fraudster Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto – is facing an uphill battle in Howe Sound. First Nations and citizens along the various pipeline routes are digging in their heels. Asian LNG prices have plummeted to well below the break-even point for BC LNG exports, obliterating the entire business case for the industry.

In fact, about only way the Petronases of the world can hope to see a profit from BC LNG is by picking your and my pockets. The only way this industry makes sense is with huge, unbilled environmental externalities and massive taxpayer subsidies.

Take it or leave it, says Mr. Abbas.

Leave it, then.

The BC Liberal government and LNG industry suffered a blow this week with a final losing vote amongst Lax Kw’alaams Band members over a billion-dollar package offered to support Petronas’ Pacific NorthWest LNG plant near Prince Rupert.

At the same time, a much smaller, quieter deal was being signed by the elected leadership of the Lake Babine Nation, pertaining to the pipeline that would feed the coastal plant – the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line. On the table in this “Project Agreement” between the 2,440-member band and pipeline contractor TransCanada was a comparatively paltry $3.56 million, plus a piece of a $10 million a year revenue sharing deal to be split amongst a number of First Nations along the pipeline route if it becomes operational.

According to the Prince George Citizen, the upfront sum of  $3.56 million will be issued in the following phases:

[quote]When the agreement takes effect Lake Babine Nation will get $324,000, when construction begins they get $1.62 million, and then the same amount when the pipeline is in operation.[/quote]

A pretty big deal

Lake Babine members must be scratching their heads wondering how their leaders settled for so little, while the Lax Kw’alaams Band at the end of the pipeline turned down what has been touted as $1.15 Billion in benefits over 40 years, following a series of votes amongst its members over the past week. All three votes, including one held for off-reserve members in Vancouver last night, went down to defeat. Even the BC government, desperate to see at least one of its many embattled LNG projects go forth, threw in 2,200 hectares of Crown land in the region, pegged at a value of $108-million.

Yet all the money and land couldn’t outweigh members’ concerns over the impacts of the massive plant proposed for Lelu Island on Skeena River salmon. A causeway for ships to dock at the plant would disturb vital eelgrass habitat in the estuary at Flora Bank (pictured above), warn scientists and conservation groups. For this very reason, a smaller coal plant operation was rejected by the federal government decades ago, when stocks were admittedly far healthier than today.

Band won’t bight on salmon assurances

The proponent has agreed to make some modifications to its design and a conveniently-timed report which it paid for argues the impacts will be negligible. But independent scientists disagree, suggesting the project could collapse already troubled Skeena stocks. And let’s not forget – this is the same proponent that literally erased the entire Skeena River and estuary from its initial project maps! So it’s easy to see how a few project tweaks and a company report would do little to sway Lax Kw’alaams members.

The band’s high-profile rejection of the project is no doubt rippling through the Liberal Cabinet room today – yet another blow to the government’s one and only economic development policy. Yet many were quick to point out that the door is still open to PacificNorthwest LNG, despite this week’s setback.

Keeping the dream alive

There was lawyer David Austin – a longtime promoter of controversial energy projects in BC, including the government’s once-vaunted private river power scheme – ready to toss aside First Nations’ rights before the final votes had even been cast. The Canadian Press paraphrased his comments as follows:

[quote]Lelu Island is Crown land managed by the Prince Rupert Port Authority, which means the province technically has the authority to push ahead without support from the Lax Kw’alaams.

Even if the band proves it has aboriginal title — which would require proving it has had exclusive occupancy of the territory — Supreme Court precedent gives the province the right to override that claim.[/quote]

Premier Clark also vowed that an agreement would yet be reached with the band and even Lax Kw’alaams’ councillors suggested they were still open to a deal on the project, so long as it avoided the contentious salmon habitat in Flora Bank. “Lax Kw’alaams is open to business, to development and to LNG,” including this particular project, a statement noted.

Meanwhile, agreements like the one signed by Lake Babine show that there are many more moves to be played out in this chess game. TransCanada boasts similarly vague agreements over the pipeline with the Nisga’a Lisims Government, Gitanyow First Nation and Kitselas First Nation.

And according to CP:

[quote]The B.C. government said it has reached 54 pipeline-benefits agreements with 28 First Nations across the province. Of the 59 First Nations along the natural-gas pipeline ending at Lelu Island only five have publicly announced signing agreements with the government.[/quote]

So the battle over Petronas’ LNG plant is far from over, yet with all the rhetoric and lack of real progress on the project, it’s starting to seem like it’s less about natural gas than hot air.

Except briefly, let’s avoid environmental questions about Woodfibre LNG for today and concentrate on fiscal matters.

Even if Woodfibre LNG was an environmental bonus to Howe Sound and the surrounding communities; even if it was clean as a whistle, its plant and accoutrements safe as a church, and the tanker traffic absolutely guaranteed by God to cause no accidents, the case against having this plant would be open and shut.

Let’s look at it from a business proposition.

The business case against BC LNG

To start with, BC’s negotiators have absolutely no experience whatsoever in the business field, much less dealing with the likes of Sukanto Tanoto, a certified, major league tax evader – not avoider, evader.

Up against this shady, at best, Indonesian billionaire, we have Premier “Photo-Op” and her poodle, Natural Gas Minister Rich Coleman, prancing around the world, hyping LNG, dealing way over their heads in what is, more and more each day, a losing proposition. They’re doing this because they’re politically committed and rather than simply say, “we were premature and excessive in our enthusiasm,” and lose face, they’re bluffing it through, at our expense (1st Class all the way), hoping like Mr. Macawber that “something will turn up.”

BC leaders in way over their heads

Here are the business qualifications of this pair.

Christy Clark, though she attended three universities, has no degree and no professional background, let alone so much as 24 hours experience in any business.

Before his election to the Legislature, Rich Coleman ran a real estate management and consulting company and is a retired policeman.

His Official Legislature biography utters not a peep about his work background, but says:

[quote]Before entering public life, Rich was governor of the BC Kinsmen, president of the Aldergrove Chamber of Commerce, Langley’s 1988 Volunteer of the Year, and a director on several volunteer boards. As a member of the Aldergrove Kinsmen Club in the 1980s, Rich oversaw the volunteer fundraising and construction efforts that built the Aldergrove Kinsmen Community Centre, a vital community facility which houses a preschool, library, workout area, and meeting space. The Club was also involved in building a successful housing project in Aldergrove. Rich is a life member of the Kinsmen.[/quote]

The premier and Mr. Coleman especially seem to have been fine citizens yet just how that qualifies them to deal with international corporate slime bags is quite another matter.

About said Slime Bags

Before getting into this, let’s have a quick look at Tanoto’s environmental record. Greenpeace calls him “Indonesia’s lead driver of rainforest destruction”. Tanoto doesn’t deny his gross, unwarranted destruction of rain forests but claims he has reformed.

Woodfibre LNG Vice-president Byng Giraud was, from 2010 until 2013, vice-president corporate affairs for Imperial Metals, owner of the Mount Polley mine which, in 2014, caused massive destruction in Quesnel Lake, Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and Cariboo Creek, the entire Quesnel and Cariboo river systems right up to the Fraser River.

When asked about Tanoto’s appalling environmental record, Mr. Giraud scarcely puts up a vigorous defence for his boss, stating:

[quote]When you come (to B.C.) you have to follow the rules, regulations and conditions imposed by our regulatory regime.[/quote]

Just as Tanoto’s companies do in Indonesia, presumably.

Tax evader extraordinaire

But what about his corporate reliability? Can we trust Tanoto to be responsible and meet his financial responsibilities?

Surely even to Clark and Coleman this is of huge importance and requires the highest degree of “due diligence”.

Let The Guardian, one of the most respected papers in the world, speak the evidence:

[quote]Giant Asian logging companies that make billions from destroying rainforests use a labyrinth of secret shell companies based in a UK overseas territory, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), which operate as a tax haven, according to documents seen by the Observer. The 13 companies own millions of acres in Indonesia, provide much of the world’s palm oil, timber and paper, and use complex legal and financial structures to keep their tax liabilities low.

An unpublished two-year investigation by anti-corruption experts, and seen by the Observer, says Britain should launch a major investigation into the use of the BVI and other tax havens by “high-risk” sectors such as Indonesian forestry. This follows a court case in Jakarta in which one of the world’s largest palm oil companies, owned by billionaire Sukanto Tanoto, was fined US$205m after being shown to have evaded taxes by using shell companies in the BVI and elsewhere. The company has agreed to pay the fines.

Documents arising from the case show that Tanoto’s company, Asian Agri, systematically produced fake invoices and fake hedging contracts to evade more than $100m of taxes. [emphasis added][/quote]

When you see and read ads by their PR prevaricators about the huge advantages Woodfibre LNG will confer on British Columbia, you might just recall those words: “Documents arising from the case show that Tanoto’s company…systematically produced fake invoices and fake hedging contracts to evade more than $100m of taxes.”

Thus we might well wonder, “Will Tanoto leave behind, for our generosity, a penny of taxes or royalties or, more likely, will the money all somehow wind up in Singapore?”

Even a casual investigation of Tanoto’s modus vivendi discloses a pattern of moving money around his companies so as to avoid, if not evade tax – why wouldn’t he do the same with Woodfibre LNG?

Thinking like Tanoto

This scenario is corporate child’s play.

Suppose Pacific Energy Corp., a Tanoto company, buys gas on the Alberta exchange (Woodfibre LNG has opened a Calgary office to do just that), then transfers it to Woodfibre LNG Export Pte. for just enough to cover Pacific’s Energy’s costs to Woodfibre – resulting in zero profits there. No problem – all the same owners.

Now, Woodfibre LNG Export Pte. has a deal with Woodfibre LNG Ltd. (WLNG) – the guys at Squamish – for the latter to liquefy the gas and store the LNG. That contract also sets a price that just covers WLNG’s costs. Result: No profits at WLNG, either.

With me so far?

Here’s where it’s “now you see it, now you don’t” – so do pay close attention!

Woodfibre LNG Export Pte. – a company which may be as insubstantial as a single trader at a desk anywhere – sells the LNG to an overseas firm for an annual profit of over $275 million (our Dr. Eoin Finn confirms this as a reasonable prognostication) in the hands of the Singaporean-registered (and domiciled) Woodfibre LNG Export Pte.

LNG sleight of hand

Now, watch the corporate fingers carefully!

Because of the Canada-Singapore tax treaty, which states that Singapore – not Canada – gets to tax this entity, no income taxes for any of this will be levied in Canada. Nor royalty taxes, which are levied at 3.5% on domestic profits, only after capital costs have been fully depreciated (by Woodfibre LNG Ltd., which will own the facility).

Now, folks, here’s where you act really surprised.

Singapore has a 10-year tax holiday for LNG firms!

If you listen carefully, wafting through the tropical palms, you can hear the soft refrain, “let me call you sweetheart…”

What’s in it for us?

So, back to the main question: will Tanoto and his corporate plaything, Woodfibre LNG Export Pte., leave anything behind in taxes or royalties for the considerable privilege of doing business here?

The answer is surely “not a chance”. Why the hell would he? What is there in his track record to make us believe that this time will be different and out of a spirit of corporate generosity he’s going to leave his money in Canada and pay every cent of the taxes and royalties owed?

Apart from welcoming an environmental pariah, we’re walking, eyes wide open, into a deal with a man who’s a convicted big-time tax evader, coming into a jurisdiction where tax evasion isn’t even difficult!

Joining this welcome are a former BC premier, two former attorneys-general, the elite of the business community and The BC Business Council, calling themselves “Resource Works”, spending money like drunks in a Cat House, dishing out half-truths at best to convince us plebes that they know what’s best for us.

And aren’t we so lucky also to have a business-oriented government, guided by Christy Clark and Rich Coleman, looking after our affairs?

The war against an LNG plant in Squamish is heating up, and as the late singer Al Jolson said, “You ain’t seen nothin yet.”

Know that on this issue, I am not in any way independent. Along with thousands of others, I’m in this fight to the finish.

On the side of the LNG plant is all the money, the company itself and its crooked multi-billionaire owner, the federal government, the provincial government, the LNG lobby, the fossil fuel industry, the tanker industry, the corporate media, and the right wing in general. Shilling for Woodfibre LNG, as readers will know, is an outfit called Resource Works, funded in part by the BC Business Council and, one suspects, Woodfibre LNG itself – although that’s not been admitted or proved.

Incidentally, Woodfibre LNG and Woodfibre Natural Gas are the same company.

David a good match for Goliath

One would think that the forces against us who are fighting this battle to save Howe Sound are such that we should throw up our hands in surrender and be good little boys and girls and obey our “betters”.

Au contraire – the odds are perfect because we have two allies who are invincible, the Citizens and the Truth.

Because we have the facts, telling the truth comes easy to us.

For the same reason, it is impossible for Woodfibre LNG, its acolytes and apologists to do the same. Their streams of half-truths and untruths come naturally, such that they no longer recognize truth from fiction. They also carry with them the conviction of missionaries that what they are doing is God’s work thus is good for the people.

Do I exaggerate?

Woodfibre’s spin machine

Let’s take a look at the credibility issue from several points of view.

Woodfibre LNG, has two PR agencies, one of which is Hill and Knowlton, one of the worlds largest. Here are a couple of their business adventures over the last few years.

A number of the firm’s clients over its history have been involved in most unsavoury practices. These include:

• The tobacco industry in the 1950s and 1960s

• The Bank of Credit and Commerce International from 1988–90 (about which Time Magazine said, “Nothing in the history of modern financial scandals rivals the unfolding saga of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International (B.C.C.I.), the $20 billion rogue empire that regulators in 62 countries shut down early this month (July 1991) in a stunning global sweep. Never has a single scandal involved so much money, so many nations or so many prominent people”)

• The Government of Kuwait in the lead up to the Gulf War

• The Church of Scientology from 1987–1991.

• The company has also been famous for polishing the image of governments seeking to hide their human rights violations such as Indonesia, Turkey, Maldives, and Uganda.

• Hill an Knowlton is one of a number of firms engaged by fracking interests in recent years.

When our governments are called upon to approve applications of Woodfibre LNG and the public to support them, we’re asked to rely upon carefully prepared words. I know from personal experience that the likes of Hill and Knowlton ensure that every public word their client speaks has been carefully laundered and approved. Any resemblance to the truth is strictly coincidental.

How confident are you, under these circumstances, that you’re getting any truth, let alone the whole truth, when you hear from Woodfibre LNG’s president Anthony Gelotti, who has worked in the development of LNG projects all over the world for Chevron, Shell North America, Enron and Mobil?

How about your confidence in the veracity of Woodfibre LNG’s vice president and constant spokesman – about whom more in a moment – Byng Giraud?

Woodfibre VP oversaw regulatory affairs for Mount Polley

Giraud joined Woodfibre Natural Gas Limited in April 2013 and this may interest you – immediately before was vice-president corporate affairs for Imperial Metals, owner of the Mount Polley mine which, in 2014, caused massive destruction in Quesnel Lake, Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and Cariboo Creek, and the entire Quesnel and Cariboo river systems right up to the Fraser River. As vice-president, Giraud was responsible for regulatory affairs and communication with regulators.

Woodfibre flacks lie to lobbying commissioner

Woodfibre LNG also uses a Canadian PR firm, Global Affairs Inc.

Now hear this!

In order to lobby the federal government, each of them was required to register with The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying, pledging that their clients are essentially independent of any control from outsiders. Needless to say, they are expected to be truthful.

Here’s what they did:

First, Hill and Knowlton Strategies’ lobbyists Mark Cameron and Ryan Kelahear – in both their client information segments – state that their client “is not a subsidiary of any other parent companies” and that “The activities of Woodfibre Natural Gas Limited are not controlled or directed by another person or organization with a direct interest in the outcome of this undertaking”.

Meanwhile, Global Public Affairs Inc. lobbyists Katherine Preiss and Dan Seekings gave precisely the same undertakings to the Commission.

These are, to put it bluntly, barefaced lies.

Here is the truth – Woodfibre LNG, the proponent of the Squamish project, is a subsidiary of Singapore-based Pacific Oil & Gas Limited, part of the Singapore-based Royal Golden Eagle group.

Royal Golden Eagle was founded, is owned and controlled by Sukanto Tanoto, a business tycoon with a personal wealth estimated at $2.3 billion US; he is considered one of the richest men in Indonesia.

Indonesian billionaire’s long record of fraud, eco-crimes

But does this really matter? Aren’t these just pieces of paper that the bureaucracy loves to have and tuck away in some obscure spot?

The answer to that is an unequivocal YES it matters a great deal! This information is of vital importance and here is a good example of why – here’s the actual track record of Sukanto Tanoto the PR companies are obviously trying to bury.

As owner of Indonesia’s Unibank, he borrowed heavily and then managed to avoid repayment of $442 million US to customers.

In 2012, Tanoto was found guilty of tax evasion and agreed to pay over $200 million US in fines.

Animal lovers accuse Tanoto’s palm oil enterprise of causing orangutan deaths on a large scale and destruction of the habitat of the Sumatran tiger.

His critics, including Greenpeace, call Tanoto “Indonesia’s lead driver of rainforest destruction.” His companies and contractors routinely violate local laws and illegally expand palm and pulp and paper production into rainforests, national parks and community lands.

He has even been alleged to use violence in response to protests of his logging operations.

In 1988, a rupture occurred in an aeration lagoon at Indorayon, a pulp and paper mill owned by a subsidiary of Tanoto’s RGE, sending raw chemical waste into a river from which several villages drew their water.

Five years later, a boiler exploded, showering the countryside with chlorine and other chemicals. Thousands of people fled. Clearly there were alternatives to chlorine, but they would have made the production process more expensive.

Mr. Tanoto’s companies have a poor record of complying with government regulations.

These allegations, unchallenged by Mr. Tanoto, have been made in first class newspapers, including the Guardian and a summary of them appeared on these pages in an article I wrote some months ago.

Is this kind of neighbour Squamish wants?

This is the man upon whose reputation and credibility Woodfibre LNG depends when they come to our governments, and to us as citizens, and promise that they will obey our laws, not cheat on taxes, and be good corporate citizens – especially when it comes to our environment?

How do you feel about believing Mr. Tanoto, his employees and their public relations companies?

Squamish resident and My Sea to Sky co-founder Tracey Saxby put it this way:

[quote]We need to ask whether Tanoto is who we want to welcome to Squamish as our new neighbour. You have to question as well, when you have somebody who doesn’t necessarily have the same ethics or morals you’d like to see in a good neighbour, how does that filter down in the company that he owns? It really comes down to a question of trust and do we trust that Woodfibre LNG is going to do the right thing. And I think the answer to that is that most people don’t.[/quote]

Industry lobby uses deception, fakes interview

Let me now to take you back to recent articles I wrote here about Resource Works and their averment that that tanker traffic in Howe Sound was confirmed safe by Dr. Michael Hightower of Albuquerque New Mexico. In fact, this was a distorted statement from a phoney interview that was conducted by Resource Works. A sham!

When, after the so-called interview, Dr. Eoin Finn talked to Dr. Hightower it became quite clear that he was not referring to Howe Sound. Moreover, and this would be funny if it weren’t so serious, when you actually use Dr. Hightower’s calculations, there is absolutely no way tanker traffic in Howe Sound could be considered safe. This is more than confirmed by the fact that less conservative scientists than Dr. Hightower have set standards by which the safety boundaries actually go up on top of the Sea-To-Sky Highway!

You will no doubt remember that after this exposure by Dr. Finn and Commander Roger Sweeny, Woodfibre LNG panicked, held an emergency meeting and gave us a new route – which Commander Sweeny, in these pages, carefully analyzed, concluding “Only a certified numbskull would suggest option B.”

Giraud keeps spinning safety fibs

Now here is another critically important example of what I’m talking about when dealing with Woodfibre LNG’s lack of credibility.

Byng Giraud wrote the following in the North Shore News, along with other barnyard droppings, on April 12 last.

[quote]I believe it is also important to clarify that LNG shipping is important to clarify that LNG shipping is extremely safe. LNG has been shipped around the world for 50 years, and there has never been any recorded loss of containment from an LNG carrier at sea. (Emphasis mine – RM)[/quote]

Here are the facts with respect to tankers in Howe Sound, where you may recall, Woodfibre LNG proposes to send its tankers – not LNG tankers at sea.

Minimum Safe Separation

Sandia International laboratories has defined for the US Department of Energy three hazard zones of 500m, 1600m, and 3500m surrounding LNG tankers. The largest, a circle of 3500m radius centred on the moving ship, represents the minimum safe separation between tankers and people. Other LNG hazard experts say at least 4800m is a more realistic minimum safe separation distance.

Channels too narrow

Almost nowhere in Howe Sound can a ship in mid-channel be more than 1600m from shore. North of Britannia Beach, the Sound is only about 2700m wide.   The 3 possible outbound routes from there to the Salish Sea (one east and two west of Bowen) contain another 14 choke points, where the average width is reduced to just 1850m. Thus the Sandia 3500m minimum safety zone extends more than 2 kilometres beyond each side of all those channels.   Virtually the entire Sea to Sky Highway from Britannia down to Lighthouse Park, Anvil, Bowyer, Bowen, eastern Gambier, most of Keats, and the Pasley Islands group, – representing many thousands of people – all lie well within the 3500m zone.

Dr. Finn and Commander Sweeny have interpreted these findings with overlays on charts of Howe Sound and the evidence is solid and final. The proposed Woodfibre LNG tanker route falls well inside these conservative limits.

You can see, I trust, why credibility matters so much.

When Mr. Giraud speaks of “LNG tankers at sea” it’s no slip of the tongue but a very deliberate misstatement. He wants you to think that that safety record includes narrow channels like Howe Sound and it clearly does nothing of the sort.

Opponents not going away

I leave you with this thought:

The Howe Sound Action Committee and the various organizations and citizens that are dedicated to fighting the Squamish LNG proposal realize that all of the money and the power is against us.

We also know that we have two things going for us – the citizens and the facts, and this gives us credibility.

On the other hand, Woodfibre LNG’s “case” is built on falsehood, starting with the question as to who they really are, and half-truths which will always come out and cannot stand the most cursory examination.

Howe Sound is not just the fight of those who live along its shores. This is a gem of nature, possessed by all British Columbians; we must, all of us, take up the cudgels and fight those who would destroy this fantastic natural asset that belongs to all 4 million-plus of us.

We who fight have been underestimated. Woodfibre has underestimated us, the governments have underestimated us, the mainstream media has underestimated us.

That will prove to be a very serious mistake. Let it be clearly understood that we intend to fight to the end and we accept that civil disobedience on a large scale will be required.

We are not going away and we won’t quit.