Premier’s LNG promises and timelines catching up to her

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VICTORIA – B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark keeps proving she knows what people want to hear, but she just can’t be taken at her word.

After neglecting every other sector of the economy like forestry, mining and tourism to focus exclusively on LNG, Clark’s timelines have started catching up to her and the truth is starting to emerge.

After failing to get the job done, delaying LNG tax legislation and environmental legislation, the premier is finally facing the reality that she put all of B.C.’s eggs into one basket and only managed to make it come up empty.

THEN: Before the election, the premier promised big on LNG, complete with definitive timelines

“The money is going to start coming in 2017, and we’re going to have three plants up and running by 2020, the first one by 2015.”   (Premier Christy Clark, CBC, Feb. 13, 2013)

Our goal is debt-free B.C. and we intend to reach our goal 15 years from today.” (Premier Christy Clark, Canadian Press, April 15, 2013)

NOW: As B.C.’s LNG hopes fade, the premier is now suggesting no one should have taken her word on LNG timelines:

“The script that we thought we were predicting it would go by might turn out to be different than we had expected.”   (Premier Christy Clark, CJCI, Jan. 21, 2015)

“I have always said my timetable is one that I can’t control.”   (Premier Christy Clark, CHNL, Jan. 20, 2015)

But the premier apparently hasn’t told her natural gas development minister that the timelines won’t be met:

“They are continuing on their plans with the schedule they had told me before Christmas – each one of them.” (Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Coleman, National Post, Jan. 22, 2015)

John Horgan and B.C.’s New Democrats support the development of LNG in B.C., done right. That means LNG development must include express guarantees of jobs and training opportunities for British Columbians, a fair return for our resources, benefits for First Nations, and protection of our air, land and water, including living up to our climate change commitments.