LNG expansion in northern B.C. amid provincial election boosts Eby’s party: expert

Prime Minister Mark Carney stepped onto a chair Tuesday at a photo opportunity after a multibillion-dollar LNG announcement and came eye-to-eye with the six-foot-seven-inch David Eby, making both leaders laugh.

But it’s the British Columbia NDP leader’s election campaign that got a boost with the announcement of the $33-billion Phase 2 expansion of LNG Canada’s liquefied natural gas export terminal on the northern B.C. coast in Kitimat. 

Eby smiled as he stepped onto a stage in Vancouver shortly after Carney welcomed LNG Canada’s final investment decision on Tuesday. 

“What a day for British Columbia, what a day for our country,” he said. 

The NDP leader, who called a snap election last week, said LNG Canada’s decision is a “very big deal” that will create 4,000 new construction jobs and $28 billion in revenues for government to help fund public services. 

Eby’s party took credit just minutes after the announcement was made. 

“For years, the B.C. NDP worked closely with the federal government and the company to advance the project and build the confidence needed to secure this investment,” the party said in a statement. 

Former B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark first proposed a massive expansion of the liquefied natural gas industry, promising in the 2013 election campaign to use the revenue to wipe out provincial debt. 

The LNG expansion would double LNG Canada’s capacity to 28 million tonnes a year and it is one of the first five developments referred to Ottawa’s major projects office last year. 

Eby, who appeared at the event in his capacity as premier, thanked the prime minister for moving the project forward so quickly after Carney took office.

“I want to thank you for giving this project the attention it deserves, because it will change lives for the better here and around the world with stable, reliable, predictable, low-carbon Canadian energy,” he said. 

Carney said at an unrelated news conference after he announced the expansion that the five companies that are part of LNG Canada determined the timing. 

Stewart Prest, who teaches political science at the University of B.C., said the announcement will help Eby’s party blunt some of the attacks from the provincial Conservatives, who have accused government of standing in the way of resource projects. 

“I think it is a really important proof point for the premier and the NDP to say that they are doing the kinds of the things that are necessary to get the province through this moment,” Prest said. 

While the development might not convince Conservatives to switch their votes, it would allow New Democrats to neutralize the issue, he added. 

Conservative interim leader Lorne Doerkson said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday that he is thrilled that the federal government has pushed the LNG expansion through.

“I know David Eby will certainly enjoy a moment here, but the reality is that we need to work with our federal government to promote this.” 

The B.C. Conservatives announced on Monday that its government, if elected, would triple provincial LNG production by 2035, but the NDP noted that the promise already falls well below the current pace of development. 

Doerkson was in Maple Ridge on Tuesday, where he announced that a future government of his would remove the Provincial Sales Tax on Canadian alcohol for the duration of the current trade war with the United States.

At the LNG announcement, Carney didn’t mention Eby past his opening address, but said that all levels of government were pulling in the same direction, along with dozens of First Nations, the private sector, workers and communities across northern B.C.

“This is team Canada at work,” Carney told a group of business leaders, First Nations and politicians at the event organized by LNG Canada. 

Green Leader Emily Lowan says in a statement that she is deeply disappointed by the approval of the expansion, noting that LNG Canada is an entirely-foreign owned project. 

“The profits from LNG development flow directly to shareholders and governments abroad, while the costs stay here,” she said. 

“Families in Kitimat and Terrace are already living with the health effects: dirtier air, rising asthma rates, and rogue flares lighting up the sky.”

Eby has previously said that not all British Columbians support LNG, but Prest said he is not sure whether Lowan’s party could benefit from the announcement by attracting soft NDP voters concerned about resource development.

“Over the last 18 months or so, there is a greater willingness among the population to embrace the idea of resource development in the shorter term to meet the urgent need and to sort of place climate change on the back-burner, even though climate change has no interest in going on the back-burner itself,” Prest said. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.