Energy Minister Tim Hodgson says the federal government is providing $200 million over three years for the Woodfibre LNG project near Squamish.
The Story
The federal government says it will invest $200 million over three years in British Columbia’s Woodfibre LNG project, with Energy Minister Tim Hodgson announcing the funding at an event in Vancouver on Nov. 13, 2026.
Hodgson said Canada’s Pacific coastline gives the country “direct access to some of the world’s most dynamic economies,” and told reporters, “We will seize that advantage.”
He said the goal is to “turn geographic advantage into conditions to attract investment to this country, to build major projects, and to create jobs for British Columbians and Indigenous Peoples,” as the industry expands in partnership with the private sector.
Woodfibre LNG is a liquefied natural gas export facility located seven kilometres southwest of Squamish, B.C. The project is being built in collaboration with the Squamish Nation, and Hodgson said it is the first major industrial site in Canadian history approved through an Indigenous-led environmental assessment in which the First Nation acted as regulator.
Woodfibre LNG CEO Luke Schauerte said the project was about 75 per cent finished, with first exports “more than a year away.”
Hodgson said the federal investment would support a nearly 25 per cent increase in the facility’s capacity to 2.6 million tonnes of LNG per year, up from 2.1 million tonnes.
Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson, who said he will be sworn in later this month following a decisive B.C. Conservatives win in October’s snap election, called the federal funding welcome for the region and the provincial economy.
Doerkson said the project demonstrates British Columbia’s ability to build big things and pointed to collaboration between governments, First Nations and industry.
Schauerte said construction has already generated more than $13.6 billion in economic output and contributed nearly $7 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product.
He said the project has created more than 52,000 job-years through construction and that with more than 1,500 people on site, “there is more to come.”
Schauerte added that once completed, the project would generate about $11.6 billion in government revenues over the next 40 years, while the investment itself is described by federal officials as a way to increase the project’s export capacity.
The announcement drew criticism from some economists and political opponents. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives senior economist Marc Lee questioned why the project could not proceed on “straight up commercial terms,” and said Woodfibre LNG and other projects would face competition from “a lot of new supply” coming online elsewhere.
The B.C. Greens also criticized the funding. MLA-elect Jeremy Valeriote, who said he represents the area where the project is under construction, described the federal money as another “gift for the fossil fuel industry,” citing concerns about the cost of living and recent extreme weather that has led to flooding around Squamish.
Valeriote said communities “deserve a government focused on keeping them safe, not on another fossil fuel project” that he said will increase climate risk.
← More stories