‘We will build this pipeline for the people of Canada’: Hodgson promises Pacific Link will get built

By

 Spencer Van Dyk

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Published: October 04, 2026 

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson listen to Steven MacKinnon, leader of the government in the House of Commons, respond to a question during a news conference in the Foyer of the House of Commons in Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 21, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson is promising the new Pacific Link oil pipeline to the West Coast will get built, regardless of potential future market shifts and geopolitical changes.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the Pacific Link pipeline will be the first officially designated national interest project under the Building Canada Act.

The designation is meant to speed up the process of building the pipeline, with both the premier and prime minister setting a September 2027 timeline for construction to get underway.

Carney on Thursday also insisted: “The Canadian taxpayer is going to make a lot of money off this pipeline.”

In the meantime, taxpayers are footing much of the bill for the pipeline, despite promises it needed a private backer. According to a government official in a technical briefing ahead of the announcement on Thursday, the early process is estimated to cost $4 billion between the two levels of government.

The Pembina Pipeline Corp. has expressed interest in a 10 per cent private sector stake and has the option of up to another 10 per cent once the pipeline is in operation.

In an interview on CTV Question Period airing Sunday, host Vassy Kapelos asked Hodgson why Canadians should trust that the pipeline will get built when the prime minister said less than a year ago it would not go forward without a private proponent.

“We’re in the middle of the worst energy crisis in the history of the modern world, as defined by the International Energy Agency (IEA),” Hodgson said, adding he thinks “Canadians understand a lot has changed in the last year.”

“That was all really brought on by a war that had not started a year ago,” Hodgson also said. “We are in a very different world today. The Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) has proven to be a very good investment for Canadians, and I believe this project will be as well.”

Hodgson then pointed to the number of foreign markets that have expressed an interest in Canadian oil.

Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith listens in Fort McMurray on Thursday Oct 1, 2026. Prime Minister Mark Carney declared the Pacific Link pipeline project to be in the national interest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Greg Halinda

When pressed by Kapelos on the federal government’s commitment to the Pacific Link pipeline — considering geopolitical contexts are constantly changing and many European markets remain committed to transitioning away from conventional energy — Hodgson said his impression from the president of the IEA is that “demand for oil to continue well into the future.”

Pressed again on much of Europe’s commitment to reaching net zero and how that could affect the demand for Canadian oil down the line, Hodgson said: “I think the market will speak.”

“The proponents here will have an open season, likely next spring, and in that open season, shippers will be asked to commit to long-term contracts to take oil over that pipeline,” he added.

If shippers do not commit to the pipeline, Hodgson said: “We’ll deal with that at the time.”

“But if I were a betting person today, looking at what we’ve just seen happen on the TMX, where shippers increased their contracted portion of the pipeline, and where I hear from everyone (that) they would like more, if I were a betting person, I think that’s a pretty good bet for the Canadian taxpayer,” Hodgson said.

Hodgson reiterated the prime minister’s election promise to turn Canada into an energy superpower, saying the federal government is “highly confident” that’s the best path forward for the country.

“The good news is there are shovels in the ground,” Hodgson said, pointing to two other projects that are currently underway, such as the 89-kilometre Taylor to Gordondale pipeline to move diluent from British Columbia to Alberta, and the $4-billion Sunrise pipeline expansion.

“We are building pipelines, and we will build this pipeline for the people of Canada,” Hodgson insisted.

With files from CTV News’ Rachel Aiello

Spencer Van Dyk

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Writer & Producer, Ottawa News Bureau, CTV News

 

LNG Canada to import steel from China for $33B project in Kitimat, B.C.

By

Brett Lubkiwski

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Published: October 02, 2026 

Wudang, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, fills up at an LNG Canada facility, in an aerial view, in Kitimat, B.C., on Thursday, November 13, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns (ETHAN CAIRNS)

LNG Canada has confirmed it will be using Chinese steel for its upcoming Phase 2 expansion project in Kitimat, B.C.

In a statement to CTV News, an LNG Canada spokesperson says the decision is not a preference but a necessity.

“The challenge is not a preference for offshore steel, but the specialized fabrication capability required for modules of this scale and complexity. There are no fabrication yards in Canada that can manufacture and deliver the additional modules required for Phase 2,” the statement reads.

The company also says that “marine access is essential” in its decision to import steel from overseas.

“Modules of this scale cannot be transported to Kitimat by road; they must be fabricated at a facility with direct access to tidewater and shipped by sea,” the spokesperson said. “Once in Kitimat, they can be received through LNG Canada’s existing module offloading facility, moved into position and integrated into the plant.”

LNG Canada added that the majority of the steel used in construction of a pipeline compressor for Phase 2 will be Canadian-sourced.

“Coastal GasLink is targeting almost 15,000 tonnes of steel from Canadian suppliers or mills, representing approximately 70 per cent of the steel required for that work,” the spokesperson said.

LNG Canada announced Tuesday that it’s going ahead with the Phase 2 expansion of the facility, which would double its capacity by the early 2030s, when the project is expected to be completed.

“Over $30 billion in LNG Canada (Phase) 2 will make LNG Canada the second-largest facility of its kind in the world,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney during Tuesday’s news conference.

Carney also said the expansion will create “thousands of new jobs” while connecting Canadian energy with global markets.

Phase 2 of the project will create two new processing units, also referred to as trains, at the Kitimat facility, increasing production from 14 million tonnes to 28 million.

The federal Conservative Party is criticizing the decision to use Chinese steel, saying it goes directly against the prime minister’s promise to “buy Canadian.”

“The fact that the steel fabrication cannot be done in Canada is another failure of Mr. Carney’s government to create the environment for steelmaking here at home,” says Conservative MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek Ned Kuruc in a statement issued Friday.

Kuruc also pointed to the partial shutdown of steel manufacturer Stelco’s plant in his hometown of Hamilton, putting hundreds of people out of work.

“Now, we learn that the project that the prime minister has touted as the second-largest private investment in Canada will use Beijing steel, at the exact time as our steelworkers are hurting the most,” said Kuruc.

The expansion will also include the addition of a new LNG storage tank, condensation tank, loading berth and expanded processing systems.

The company exports natural gas that is piped from northwestern Alberta and northeastern B.C. to the plant in Kitimat, where it is turned into a liquid state and then loaded onto specialized tankers bound for Asian markets.

LNG Canada is a joint venture between Shell, PetroChina, Malaysia’s Petronas, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and South Korea’s KOGAOpens in new window

Brett Lubkiwski

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CTV News Vancouver Journalist

 

New click beetle species named after Dominican Republic’s Indigenous Arawak people

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Lissomus arawak, dorsal habitus. 

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Credit: Image by J. Pirkl, 2025.

A new species of click beetle with a glossy and highly domed black body has been described from cloud forest sites in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, and named in honour of the Arawak peoples who lived on the island before European colonisation.

Lissomus arawak measures under a centimetre long and is easily recognised by its shining and almost hairless black body, alongside its pale-yellow antennae segments. It is only the third species of the genus Lissomus known from Hispaniola, and the third recorded anywhere in the Greater Antilles.

The study, published in the open-access journal Alpine Entomology, was carried out by Paul J. Johnson of South Dakota State University and Jiri Hodecek of the Swiss Human Institute of Forensic Taphonomy, as part of an ongoing survey of Dominican insect life. Specimens were found at three sites in montane broadleaf and cloud forest between roughly 600 and 700 metres, near the Sierra de Bahoruco and in the Cordillera Septentrional.

Rather than resembling the two other Lissomus species already known from Hispaniola, the new beetle turned out to be structurally closer to species from Central and northern South America.

“The morphological differences suggest that the Lissomus species of Hispaniola may not all descend from a single colonisation event,” the researchers explained. “One possible explanation is therefore that ancestors of these beetles reached the Greater Antilles on at least two separate occasions.” They caution, however, that “this remains a testable hypothesis rather than a demonstrated evolutionary history,” pending a fuller phylogenetic analysis.

The species is known from just five specimens, collected individually between 1985 and 2024, all of them female. “With such a small sample, chance and the opportunistic nature of the collecting are probably the simplest explanations,” the researchers said, adding that this “does not seriously weaken our confidence that L. arawak is distinct. All five females share a consistent and unique combination of morphological characters.”

The name is a deliberate tribute to the island’s first inhabitants. “We chose the name arawak to recognise the Indigenous history and continuing cultural heritage of the Antilles,” the researchers said. “We wanted the name of this distinctive endemic species to connect the biological history of the island with its human history.”

The discovery forms part of a wider effort, they added, “to document the island’s still incompletely known insect diversity,” with at least 15 further click beetle species thought to await description in the Dominican Republic alone.

The discovery forms part of EntomoDR, a long-term field and taxonomy project documenting the still incompletely known insect diversity of the Dominican Republic through repeated expeditions and collaboration with an international network of taxonomic specialists. More information about the project and its discoveries is available at https://entomodr.com

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Journal

Alpine Entomology

DOI

10.3897/alpento.10.193434

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Lissomus arawak sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Elateridae), a new species from the Dominican Republic

Lissomus arawak, ventral habitus.

Lissomus arawak, lateral habitus. 

Credit

Image by J. Pirkl, 2025.

Type locality of Lissomus arawak in Pedernales province (el. 700 m).

Credit

Paul J. Johnson et al., 2026.