On 14 October 2014, the 2nd Woodfibre LNG Telephone Town Hall was held, where participants listened in and asked questions of the Woodfibre LNG team. This is one of the many activities that Woodfibre LNG, an arm of the RGE Group’s Pacific Oil & Gas company, has held to engage with the local community to understand their interests, issues and concerns about the development of the proposed natural gas liquefaction and export facility, located approximately seven kilometres southwest of Squamish, British Columbia, Canada.
Woodfibre LNG proposed layout – June 2014
Woodfibre LNG is expected to begin construction in 2015, and be operational by 2017, based on the current project schedule, and subject to environmental approvals. Natural gas will be delivered to the Woodfibre site through an expanded FortisBC pipeline, where it will be liquefied and loaded onto LNG carriers for shipment to overseas customers.
A key cornerstone in the development of the Woodfibre LNG facility is to proceed with “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This is in line with RGE Group’s chairman, Sukanto Tanoto’s belief that a company can only be successful if it is a responsible corporate citizen. Hence, Woodfibre LNG emphasizes the engagement with local community to understand their interests, issues and concerns. The key stakeholders are the regional and local government, recreation/tourism groups, business groups, educational institutions, community associations and environmental groups.
The inputs received, together with the technical and socio-economic considerations, are considered in the plans for the Woodfibre LNG Project as well as the development of mitigation measures for potential project effects.
In addition to the Town Hall events, two Community Consultation meetings were held over a few weeks in February and June 2014, where various inputs provided by the stakeholders were heard, recorded and will be duly considered in the project plans. The reports from these meetings can be downloaded from the Woodfibre LNG website that also provides project updates. The other platform for the local community to engage with the company is through Woodfibre LNG’s Facebook page, where public inquiries can be made and where the company’s responses and regular project updates are posted. Information broadsheets that provide general information on the project and LNG as a product are also mailed to all households in Squamish and the surrounding area to keep the community informed about the progress of the project.
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