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With the threat of U.S. tariffs still looming, the Quebec government has opened the door to reconsidering a controversial pipeline project transporting natural gas from Western Canada to the province, where it would be liquefied and shipped overseas.

The LNG-Québec project, planned for the Saguenay area, north of Quebec City, was scrapped in 2021 due to the pipeline's environmental risks — and strong public opposition.

Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette said this week the government would consider looking at the project again.

"We're not opposed to energy projects that respect the environmental criteria," he said.

It marked a significant shift for the Coalition Avenir Québec government, but one that shouldn't come as a surprise, given the changed political context, said Mark Purdon, a business school professor and holder of the decarbonization chair at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

"I really think it's politics. I don't think what is driving the renewal of LNG-Québec is the economic opportunity," Purdon told CBC News.

The fundamentals of the project haven't changed, and neither have the environmental concerns, he said.

The proposed project included a 780-kilometre natural gas pipeline from northern Ontario to Saguenay and a terminal to liquefy the gas in Saguenay and load it onto tankers.

It faced stiff opposition due to its environmental impacts, including threats to beluga whales and broader concerns over increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Proponents of natural gas contend it is cleaner and lower in emissions than oil and coal, though its production and transportation can release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

One recent peer-reviewed study found that due to methane leakage, the greenhouse gas footprint from exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) could equal or even exceed that of coal.

'Not the solutions we are looking for'

Charles-Édouard Têtu, climate policy analyst at the environmental group Équiterre, said in an interview the province should prioritize clean energy projects rather than fossil fuels.

"These are not the solutions we are looking for and they would not answer the needs of Canadians and Quebecers at the moment," he said.

He questioned, as well, whether the demand would be there when such a project is finally completed, given the shifting situation in Europe.

WATCH | Stalled pipeline project through Quebec reconsidered:

22 hours ago

Duration 2:15

The threat of U.S. tariffs have prompted the Quebec government to reconsider the LNG-Québec project, which was scrapped in 2021, while there’s renewed discussion federally about an oil pipeline project from Alberta to New Brunswick.

A pipeline that runs from Ontario through Quebec to Saguenay would also require approval from First Nations.

Lucien Wabanonick, chief of the Anishinaabe council of Lac Simon, said First Nations would be open to listening to proposals — but would need to be consulted.

"You need to have that discussion," he said.

The federal government has also suggested that provinces should consider more co-operation given the changes south of the border.

Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal Natural Resources Minister, said Thursday that Trump's threatened tariffs exposed a "vulnerability" in energy infrastructure.

Wilkinson said some parts of Canada, namely Ontario and Quebec, are dependent on oil pipelines that move through the U.S. to meet their needs — and there has to be some hard conversations about whether that's sustainable given what may transpire during a possible Trump trade war and beyond.

Earlier this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly suggested LNG-Québec in particular could play a role in getting Canada's oil and gas to new markets overseas.

"Canada has essentially one client," Joly said. "For Alberta oil, 98 per cent of the oil goes to the U.S. but we don't currently have pipelines that cross Canada to come to Quebec."

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has long argued for more energy projects within Canada. He said recently that if he were prime minister, he would have approved pipelines like Northern Gateway and Energy East, as well as fast-track approvals for LNG plants — giving Canada more export options.

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Former senior minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said the threat of tariffs has shown the importance of diversifying Canada’s export markets

Pierre Fitzgibbon’s remarks reflect a tonal shift in the Quebec government’s view of oil and gas infrastructure in the province. Photo: The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi

Feb 7, 2025

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MONTREAL — Quebec Premier François Legault would likely support new oil and gas infrastructure in the province that would transform Alberta’s natural gas industry, Pierre Fitzgibbon, the former minister who oversaw the failed 2021 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the province, has told The Logic.

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Quebec nixed the project, known as LNG-Québec, in 2021, for environmental reasons. But now, with economic uncertainty surrounding the province's relationship with the U.S., its largest trading partner, Quebec's environment minister said the government is interested in taking another look at it.

We're not opposed to energy products that respect the environmental criteria, Benoit Charette, the environment minister, told reporters at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Charette cautioned that the project would have to respond to the previous concerns raised by Quebec's public consultation bureau, the BAPE, which played a role in the project's refusal.

The Legault government had initially supported the project. It had hoped the project would diversify the economy in the Saguenay area, north of Quebec City, a region largely dependent on the aluminum and forestry industries.

But it had axed it after concluding that the project's environmental risks outweighed the gains (new window) and that Quebecers didn't want a pipeline.

The project proposed building a 780-kilometre natural gas pipeline from northern Ontario to Saguenay and a separate project to build a plant to liquefy the gas in Saguenay and load it onto tankers.

The BAPE had concluded that the increased tanker traffic along the Saguenay River would pose a risk to vulnerable beluga whale populations and would lead to a spike in greenhouse gas emissions.

If it's the same project with the same specs, the decision will be the same, Charette said. We recall the decision of the BAPE, we recall the decision of the Ministry of the Environment. If we respond to those concerns today, it's a project that could be accepted. Projects are studied based on their merits.

Quebec Premier François Legault said Tuesday the province needs to diversify its exports (new window) in the face of U.S. economic hostility.

Speaking at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal on Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly suggested LNG-Québec could play a role in getting Canada's oil and gas to new markets overseas, like Europe.

We currently have a vulnerability with respect to the United States for our oil and our gas, she said.

Canada has essentially one client. For Alberta oil, 98 per cent of the oil goes to the U.S. but we don't currently have pipelines that cross Canada to come to Quebec.

Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre has said he would approve LNG-Québec to respond to the threat of American tariffs.

We can sell something 200 per cent or 300 per cent higher in Europe if we export overseas instead of giving all our gas to the Americans and letting them have all the profit. What we're doing is ridiculous, he told Radio-Canada in January.

'Questions are still there' says PQ

Though the Quebec government withdrew its support for the project in 2021, the federal government also refused to approve it in 2022.

Some of Quebec's provincial political parties reacted with apprehension to the idea of a natural gas pipeline.

Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis said it would have to be up to Quebec to decide if a pipeline was a good idea.

It's not Mélanie Joly and it's not the Conservative Party of Canada to decide for Quebecers when it comes to that project, he said.

We had a big debate on that project already and it wasn't determined that it was in Quebec's economic interests at the time and there was a problem with social acceptability. Those two questions are still there.

When Quebec announced it was scrapping the project in 2021, Charette had acknowledged that the government's decision angered people in Western Canada. The project would have provided an additional export market for natural gas from hydraulic fracking operations in British Columbia and Alberta.

(new window) · CBC News

The Quebec government says it would be open to reviving a liquefied natural gas project in the Saguenay region to transport Alberta energy overseas, as a way to reduce the country’s reliance on the United States as an export market.

Quebec refused to authorize GNL Québec Inc.’s proposed liquefaction facility and export terminal in 2021 and Ottawa followed suit in 2022, with both governments citing environmental and other concerns.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Canadian energy have increased the urgency for Canadian oil and gas producers to seek export markets beyond south of the border.

1:07 Trump tariffs: Houston urges feds to ‘immediately’ approve Energy East pipeline

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette signalled a willingness to entertain proposals from GNL Québec. “We’re not closed to energy projects that respect environmental criteria,” he said, later adding he would “study (the project) on its merits.”

In the government’s 2021 refusal, Charette said the proposed facility and export terminal risked “disadvantaging the energy transition” away from fossil fuels. The project, he added, was economically “risky” and posed “more disadvantages than advantages.”

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The following year, Charette said the province “made the decision (to say no) … and we have no intention of reconsidering it. It’s no longer a project (under consideration) in Quebec and we’re pretty firm on that.”

Christine Fréchette, the province’s economy and energy minister, said Wednesday that the project would need to be accepted by the population to go forward, a green light that didn’t exist a few years ago. “We need social acceptability for a project like GNL Québec,” she said.

In February 2022, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada concluded that the plant and export terminal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, harm the beluga population, and negatively impact Innu First Nations.

And while members of the governing Coalition Avenir Québec party showed openness to the project on Wednesday, later in the day its members voted down an attempt by two Independent members to adopt a motion in the legislature asking the government to “re-evaluate its positions on transporting Canadian energy resources.”

Youri Chassin and Éric Lefebvre, both former CAQ members turned Independents, failed to get enough votes to have their motion adopted.

Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime, who doesn’t have a seat in the legislature, told reporters Wednesday he welcomed the end of the unanimity of elected officials against GNL Québec. Amid the tariff threats by Trump, Duhaime said, Québec must have greater energy autonomy.

“And that involves three things: exploiting our natural gas in Quebec, building pipelines across the province, and reviving the GNL Quebec project.”