March 16, 2023

Earlier today, the Government of British Columbia issued what is known as a ‘Readiness Decision’ for the Ksi Lisims LNG Project. This means that our LNG project has reached another important milestone and moves into the next major phase of Environmental Assessment.

As Ksi Lisims LNG prepares to submit the formal Environmental Assessment application, all our Nisga’a communities will see engagement and consultation ramp up. We have already done a number of rounds of engagement with Nisga’a citizens, but as we committed from the very beginning, that deep and meaningful engagement will continue throughout the process. It has been truly amazing to see such good turnout for our past events and the level of interest and engagement from across our Nation.

Nisga’a Lisims Government wants to ensure that we are addressing your concerns, worries, suggestions and feedback throughout. Our Executive continues to receive regular briefings and updates on all of the pieces of the project during our regular meetings and our officials remain fully engaged in making sure the project moves forward in a good way.

Earlier this week, our friends the Haisla Nation were celebrating the final approval of their own LNG Project, Cedar LNG. It will be a generational opportunity for the Haisla people and for our region. I have extended a congratulations to Chief Smith on behalf of our Nation. The Nisga’a and Haisla Nations are both founding partners of the First Nations Climate Initiative. Together with an increasing number of First Nations we put forward an ambitious action plan for producing Net-Zero LNG right here at home to help lower global emissions by displacing coal and oil. I am pleased to see Premier Eby’s remarks about the new LNG framework recognizing what we have long known: that economic reconciliation and Net-Zero LNG development go hand in hand.

We have worked very hard to ensure our project was capable of achieving Net-Zero performance. It is also good to see the Province acknowledge that they need to get better at anticipating clean growth and enabling quicker electrification across the Province. As part of the Ksi Lisims LNG project our goal is to greatly improve the reliability of electricity for the Nisga’a Nation. The sooner we can upgrade the grid, the better.

While there is still lots of work to do before all approvals and decisions can be made, I am pleased to see us take this important step.

Eva Clayton,

President