Tilbury Marine Jetty project secures critical B.C. certificate

Key Takeaways:

• The certificate comes with 22 legally enforceable provincial conditions, including plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, opportunities for First Nations’ monitoring of construction and operations, opportunities for Indigenous employment and procurement, and measures to reduce impacts on water quality, air quality, and cultural and archeological resources.
• Once constructed, the TMJ will be the first facility on Canada’s west coast that will enable trans-oceanic vessels to fuel with liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Port of Vancouver.
• Tilbury Jetty GP Inc. estimates construction expenditures between $154 million and $260 million over four years, supporting more than 1,000 full-time jobs. The facility is expected to operate for a minimum of 30 years.

The Whole Story:

An Environmental Assessment Certificate has been issued to Tilbury Jetty Limited Partnership for the Tilbury Marine Jetty (TMJ) Project. FortisBC welcomed the approval and is now awaiting a decision from the Government of Canada.

The TMJ project consists of building a jetty, or dock, on the south arm of the Fraser River adjacent to FortisBC’s existing Tilbury LNG facility. Once constructed, the TMJ will be the first facility on Canada’s west coast that will enable trans-oceanic vessels to fuel with liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Port of Vancouver.

FortisBC stated that LNG from Tilbury is among the cleanest in the world with a carbon intensity that is about 30% lower than the global average because the facility is powered by hydroelectricity. Using LNG from Tilbury rather than conventional marine fuel reduces GHG emissions by up to 27 %. Switching all ships that call at the Port of Vancouver from conventional marine fuel to LNG marine fuel would also remove 90% of the particulate matter associated with marine shipping from the local airshed, according to a third-party study.

In 2022, FortisBC signed an agreement with the Musqueam Indian Band that includes options for Musqueam to acquire equity ownership in the projects at Tilbury, subject to regulatory approvals and certain conditions precedent.

The certificate comes with 22 legally enforceable provincial conditions that must be followed over the life of the project. These include plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, opportunities for First Nations’ monitoring of construction and operations, opportunities for Indigenous employment and procurement, and measures to reduce impacts on water quality, air quality, and cultural and archeological resources.

The project also requires federal approval. The B.C. EAO carried out the assessment on behalf of the federal government under a “substitution agreement.” This meant one assessment carried out by the EAO was used to support separate decisions by each level of government, eliminating the duplication of two assessments for a single project.

The EAO concluded that the project would contribute to cumulative effects from marine shipping and recommended 181 federal mitigation measures to address impacts in areas of federal jurisdiction. These include measures to reduce impacts related to marine shipping, marine accidents, greenhouse gas emissions, underwater noise, fish and fish habitat, southern resident killer whales and First Nations fishing.

While the federal decision is pending, the ministers have written to the federal ministers of Environment and Climate Change, and Transport, and are urging them to impose the EAO-recommended mitigation measures if the project receives federal approval.