B.C. Premier David Eby expressed support for the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline in remarks from South Korea on Monday (June 9), saying meetings he has had in Asia solidified his view that B.C. has reliable buyers.
"LNG projects assist us in getting that natural gas to markets where we're not otherwise able," he said. "Being here, it's very apparent how important that energy is for these countries."
Eby visited Japan, South Korea and Malaysia on the trade trip billed as a way to help diversify B.C.'s trading partners in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. He spoke on Monday (Tuesday local time) before heading home to B.C. later that day.
One of Eby's first stops in Malaysia was to meet with Petronas, which holds a 25-per-cent stake in LNG Canada. Eby said he met with people closing in on what he hoped would be a multi-billion-dollar investment in that project.
The PRGT pipeline, which is not an LNG Canada project, received a designation of "substantially started" by the B.C. government's environmental assessment office on June 5. This allows the project to proceed on a 10-year-old permit certificate.
The pipeline was initially owned by TC Energy but was acquired in March 2024 by the Nisg̱a’a Nation and Texas-based Western LNG. This foreign ownership did not bother Eby.
"We're not in the business of turning away investments in British Columbia, especially investment that assists us in diversifying our customers for our resources and allows us to get a higher price for those resources," he said.
He also highlighted the Indigenous ownership and the location of the proposed Ksi Lisims floating export terminal on Nisg̱a’a Nation territory outside Prince Rupert, as well as the fact that B.C.'s natural gas is a relatively low-carbon alternative for Asian countries.
"It checks a lot of boxes for us," he said.
Eby said he is focusing on workable LNG projects and not on oil, despite Alberta Premier Danielle Smith saying recently she could convince the B.C. premier to change his mind on an oil pipeline. Eby said he wanted to find "common ground" with Smith, but on the oil pipeline, "there's no proponent, there's no money, there's no project right now."
"In the event that premier Smith is successful in assembling those things, then we'll certainly cross that bridge when we come to it," he said.
Europe trip aims to bring in tech-sector investment
As Eby wraps up his trip, Diana Gibson, jobs, economic development and innovation minister, and Rick Glumac, minister of state for trade, were heading out on a trade trip of their own. The two ministers will be in Europe until June 14, with similar diversification goals.
The Europe trip is focused on tech conferences in England, France and the Netherlands.
Gibson told Black Press Media that it is not just tariffs impacting trade with other nations, other Trump policies are increasing non-U.S. companies' desire to work with Canadians.
"There's a lot of interest right now because of the changes south of the border, not just the tariffs, but the executive orders around health and clean energy that are creating opportunities for B.C., because we are leading in those areas," she said.
The ministers will attend London Tech Week, VivaTech in Paris and Green Tech in Amsterdam, which is an agricultural technology conference. In Paris, they will join more than a dozen B.C. businesses, many from the artificial intelligence sector. In Amsterdam, they will join six companies, involved in enterprises from farm automation to plant and soil data collection.
Gibson said that the agritech conference is important because of B.C.'s need to find other countries besides the U.S. to depend on.
"The need to pivot a little bit in that sector, from American reliance," she said,
