Costs of building the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline continue to increase

This video of Wet’suwet’en land defender Molly Wickham (Sleydo’) message to investors in the Coastal GasLink pipeline was projected by Decolonial Solidarity on the side of an RBC branch in downtown Ottawa on November 5, 2022.

The Calgary-based company building the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory without consent says it is facing cost overruns.

CBC reports: “TC Energy did not put a dollar value on the cost overruns, though it said it expects to provide an updated capital cost estimate early next year that will incorporate the recent developments.”

“It is the second time in a handful of months that TC Energy has flagged the rising costs of Coastal GasLink. In July, the company said it expected the cost of the project had risen to $11.2 billion compared with an earlier estimate of $6.6 billion.”

The article continues: “The company still expects Coastal GasLink to be completed by the end of 2023.”

Wet’suwet’en land defenders are calling on the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to divest from the pipeline.

Stand.earth has documented: “RBC is among top commercial banks providing the CGL project with working capital, including CAD $275 million in project finance, a co-financed $6.5 billion loan, a $40 million corporate loan, and $200 million in co-financed working capital – while acting as financial advisor for the pipeline.”

Export Development Canada, an export credit agency wholly owned by the Government of Canada, has also provided up to $500 million for the construction of the pipeline.

There have been 90 arrests made involving 80 different people in relation to opposition to the construction of the pipeline, with 20 people currently facing charges.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has repeatedly called on Canada to halt the construction of the pipeline and withdraw the RCMP from Wet’suwet’en territory. This was conveyed in this resolution dated December 13, 2019, and in follow-up letters sent to Leslie E. Norton, Canada’s Ambassador at the United Nations in Geneva, on November 24, 2020, and April 29, 2022.

On September 28, 2022, Kim-Mai Vu of Peace Brigades International presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva during the Interactive Dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

She stated: “The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on Canada to stop construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory. Canada ratified this International Convention in 1970 and said in 2016 that it supported the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, however, the construction of this gas pipeline without consent continues as does the criminalization of land defenders.”

We continue to follow this situation.