Ottawa Puts $200 Million Into Woodfibre LNG, Terms Undisclosed

By Tom Whitfield

Ottawa is investing $200 million in Woodfibre LNG to lift the export project's planned capacity near Squamish, B.C., by 19 to 24 per cent — and it has not said what kind of money that is.

Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson announced the funding on Friday. The facility, under construction southwest of Squamish, was designed to produce 2.1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year. The federal government says the investment could raise that target to between 2.5 million and 2.6 million tonnes.

The arithmetic is straightforward. The accountability is not.

What did Ottawa actually buy?

The federal release did not specify whether the $200 million is a grant, a loan, an equity stake or another financing instrument. It published no repayment terms, no performance conditions and no clawback provisions.

That gap matters. A repayable loan with milestones carries a different risk profile for taxpayers than a grant or an equity position in a single commodity project. Until Ottawa names the instrument and its terms, the public cannot price the exposure it has taken on. The capacity increase — a gain of roughly 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes a year — is a projection, not a commissioned fact.

The money is intended to improve reliability, efficiency and output at the existing facility and to fund work on a potential second phase. It is not an approval of that second phase, a distinction the release makes and that readers should hold the government to.

Who oversees the project?

The Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, or Squamish Nation, approved Woodfibre LNG through its own environmental assessment process. The agreement carries 25 legally binding conditions and an ongoing oversight role covering the project and its environmental management.

Squamish Nation council chairperson Sxwíxwtn Wilson Williams said the federal investment shows what can happen when Indigenous decision-making is respected — while stressing that the Nation's conditions will continue to apply to every part of the project.

That is a binding constraint, not a courtesy. Any second-phase work financed by the new federal money would still sit inside the Nation's 25-condition framework.

What are the employment and timeline claims?

The federal government expects the facility to employ about 1,500 people per day during construction and about 100 workers once it is operating. Operations are planned for late 2027 — though, as the release itself concedes, construction schedules can change.

A 100-person operating payroll for a $200-million federal commitment sets a high subsidy-per-permanent-job ratio, however the money is structured. Ottawa has not published that comparison.

Is 'net-zero' the whole story?

Woodfibre LNG will use B.C. hydroelectricity for compression and liquefaction. The company says the plant's emissions intensity will be about one-ninth of the global average for LNG export facilities.

Ottawa and the company describe the project as on track to be the world's first net-zero LNG export facility from its first day of operation. The federal release states that this claim includes the purchase of local, nature-based carbon offsets for emissions that remain during construction and operations.

Note the mechanism. Net-zero here rests partly on offsets, not solely on the plant's physical emissions. The release does not specify the volume of offsets required, their cost, or the standards governing them.

The government argues the expansion will diversify Canadian energy exports and reduce global emissions by supplying lower-emissions LNG. The release did not provide a life-cycle comparison, name any buyers, or establish that Canadian gas will displace higher-emitting fuels rather than add to overall energy supply. Displacement is asserted; it is not demonstrated.

What is the licence position?

The project holds a 40-year Canadian natural-gas export licence issued in 2017. That licence predates the current expansion and would presumably carry any second phase, though the release does not address whether new approvals would be required.

The bottom line

Ottawa has promised a 19-to-24-per-cent capacity gain, a possible second phase and a first-of-its-kind net-zero claim — and has disclosed none of the financing terms, offset volumes or buyer evidence needed to verify any of them.

Taxpayers are being asked to underwrite a projection.