Federal officials were interested in proposed Quebec LNG project, documents show

Senior federal officials touted a proposed liquefied natural gas facility in Quebec as having the potential to export “substantial volumes” of LNG to Europe, documents show.

Senior federal officials touted a proposed liquefied natural gas facility in Quebec as having the potential to export “substantial volumes” of LNG to Europe, documents show.

The revelation appears in a federal briefing note prepared in May after Marinvest Energy Canada, a subsidiary of a Norwegian energy company, requested a meeting with the top bureaucrat at the federal Natural Resources Department to discuss its plans.

Although a company representative said a lower-level public servant met with them instead of the department’s deputy minister, the meeting was part of a flurry of lobbying activity in recent months that targeted high-level government officials, political staffers in the office of Energy Minister Tim Hodgson, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Publicly, the government has said little about the project, which is still in very early stages. But according to the documents obtained by The Canadian Press, public servants were keen to hear the company’s views on the federal regulatory process last spring, as the Liberal government was preparing to table legislation to fast-track major projects.

The facility “could position Canada to export substantial volumes of Canadian natural gas to Europe in support of its medium-term energy security and long-term energy transition,” said the briefing note for the deputy minister of Natural Resources Canada.

Federal officials who drafted and approved the briefing note also recommended the government ensure the company was aware of the importance of engaging early with First Nations. The Quebec government in 2021 rejected a similar fossil fuel project in the province’s Saguenay region, which had attracted widespread opposition, including from Indigenous communities.

Details about the meeting in May were not previously reported by the company and are only coming to light as a result of the documents obtained by The Canadian Press. A representative for the company said it didn’t report this meeting on the federal lobbying registry, explaining it was not required to do so since the deputy minister did not attend.

Plans for a new natural gas pipeline and LNG export facility near Baie-Comeau, Que., along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in the province’s Côte-Nord region, were first made public in July by Quebec newspaper Le Devoir.