{"id":190549,"date":"2025-10-05T02:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T02:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/190549\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T02:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T02:04:12","slug":"quebec-lng-proposal-not-of-national-interest-at-this-point-says-federal-minister-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/190549\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec LNG proposal not of \u2018national interest\u2019 at this point, says federal minister – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson says it\u2019s too early to say whether a liquefied natural gas facility pitched for Quebec<\/a> meets the bar of being in the national interest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense is this is not a project that is at a scale where we need to be looking at it,\u201d the minister said. \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not a project of national interest at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister made the comment in Montreal on Friday during an announcement Canada would be investing $22 million to boost the country\u2019s battery production capacity.<\/p>\n

Marinvest Energy Canada had been lobbying Hodgson\u2019s department in recent months regarding a possible natural gas pipeline and export facility near Baie-Comeau, Que, just as the Liberal government was preparing to table legislation to fast-track major projects.<\/p>\n

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The federal government passed that law this June, making way for accelerated approvals on major infrastructure and energy projects deemed to be in the national interest.<\/p>\n

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In May, senior federal officials at the Natural Resources Department had touted the plan for the facility, writing in a briefing note it had the potential to export \u201csubstantial volumes\u201d of\u00a0LNG\u00a0to Europe, documents obtained by The Canadian Press reveal.<\/p>\n

A public servant for the department also met with representatives from Marinvest, a subsidiary of a Norwegian energy company, to talk about the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf and when Marinvest wants to re-engage, they are welcome to do it. They will be evaluated like any other project,\u201d Hodgson said, adding he never personally met with any of those representatives.<\/p>\n

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The Quebec government would also have to be on board, Hodgson said.<\/p>\n

The office for Quebec Minister Christine Fr\u00e9chette had declined to comment on the company\u2019s plan, telling The Canadian Press earlier this week that no formal proposal for a facility has been submitted yet.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for her office did say however that the province has \u201ca duty to objectively and rigorously examine projects of national interest,\u201d especially considering how the Trump administration has disrupted Quebec\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

Hodgson said any\u00a0LNG\u00a0project in Quebec would also need to be supported by any affected First Nation communities.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the Quebec government rejected a similar fossil fuel project in the province\u2019s Saguenay region, one which had attracted widespread opposition, including from many Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson says it\u2019s too early to say whether a liquefied natural gas facility pitched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,95196,16812,906],"class_list":["post-190549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-liberal-government","tag-lng","tag-quebec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}