The BC government announced this week that the Coastal GasLink project is being fined $590,000 for breaking environmental obligations set out by the Province.
This non-compliance to the project’s environmental assessment certificate is mandated to uphold, which the company failed to do.
Coastal GasLink reportedly neglected erosion and sediment control measures which should have been taken. The company’s neglect was first identified during multi-day inspections that took place during April and May of 2023.
The Province’s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) says these latest fines are a result of continuous non-compliance to environmental obligations.
Previous fines include:
- $340,000 (September 2023)
- $213,600 (January 2023)
- $72,500 (February 2022)
- $170,100 (May 2022)
All these fines were for failing to adequately control erosion and sediment.
The EAO says a fifth penalty of $6,000 was issued in September of last year because Coastal GasLink provided false or misleading information.
These fines equate to $801,500. The EAO says that around $1.3 million in fines have been issued to Coastal GasLink over the duration of the project.
This is a relatively insignificant amount to be fined for a TC Energy, the company that will own and operate Coastal GasLink when it is completed.
TC Energy’s revenue for the twelve months ending June 30th, 2024 was around $12.2 billion. This was a 4.5% increase year-over-year from their 2023 revenue.
Despite the penalties being insignificant, the EAO says they take matters of environmental compliance “very seriously”.
The EAO has conducted nearly 100 inspections along the pipeline construction route—either by air or ground—since the project started in 2019.
In total, these inspections have led to the EAO issuing 59 warnings and 30 orders—13 of which were stop-work orders.
Even though construction of the pipeline is now complete, Coastal GasLink must still fulfil its obligations to the reclamation work that must be done along the pipeline’s route.
