A group of UNBC students have sent a petition to the Federal government regarding the proposed Pacific Northwest LNG terminal on Lelu Island.
Students for a Green University (SGU) have been collecting signatures to urge the protection of Skeena Salmon in the surrounding areas of the Flora Banks.
Vice-President of Outreach and Social Media Dara Campbell says the motivation for this came from the timeliness of the project.
“Last we heard, they want to start construction this upcoming summer. There are a lot of other LNG projects like Kinder Morgan that are getting a lot of attention; this is one a lot of our club members haven’t heard about, and we thought it’d be good to give this more of a voice.”
The SGU obtained 500 signatures within a week before sending the hard-copy letter to Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna.
Campbell claims this was written because this issue has yet to be addressed.
“When all of us heard the science behind why it would be so detrimental to salmon habitat, we decided that we really wanted to urge the government to get Petronas to consider other locations.”
In the end, she hopes the provincial government can listen to reason if they decide to give the project the green light.
“500 isn’t a huge number in the scope of the province, but we’re hoping that helps us gain momentum for reaching out. We’re really hoping to circulate our online petition now that we’ve sent the hard-copy signatures.”
The SGU has reached to similar clubs at UBC and SFU to get them on board as well.