This investigation is a collaboration between The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation. Fewer than two dozen BC Energy Regulator inspectors are responsible for monitoring nearly 200 fossil fuel companies operating 6,594 — and counting — active oil and gas wells, pipelines, processing plants and other related infrastructure in British Columbia.  During inspections conducted between […]

This investigation is a collaboration between The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation. The British Columbia government quietly granted one of Canada’s biggest oil and gas companies an exemption for thousands of pipelines that should have been deactivated before a legal deadline, according to documents obtained under freedom of information legislation. In 2020, the BC […]

Edward Burrier chuckled as he told his colleagues what he thought about an academic paper written by a prominent U.S. climate scientist. Burrier, a director of public policy at Canadian fossil fuel giant TC Energy, said the study was largely to blame for public skepticism about whether liquefied natural gas (LNG) is as environmentally friendly […]

This investigation is a collaboration between The Narwhal and Investigative Journalism Foundation. “Serious deficiency.” “Very stinky.” “Leakage.” “A hazard.” Those are some of the ways BC Energy Regulator officials described oil and gas sites when they documented apparent environmental infractions during routine inspections, according to internal documents.  The regulator, a provincial government agency, is largely […]

This investigation is a collaboration between The Narwhal and Investigative Journalism Foundation. On a warm mid-August afternoon in 2022, a BC Energy Regulator inspector drove to an oil and gas site in the northeast part of the province. The inspection was one of more than two dozen stops for the compliance and enforcement officer that […]

This investigation is a collaboration between The Narwhal and Investigative Journalism Foundation. Between 2017 and 2023, BC Energy Regulator officials documented thousands of apparent environmental infractions at oil and gas facilities only to conclude the sites were compliant, according to internal government documents. In more than 1,000 instances, inspectors documented a series of apparent environmental […]

In April 2023, François Poirier, president and CEO of Calgary-based TC Energy, wrote a letter to B.C. Premier David Eby, applauding the NDP government’s decision to approve Cedar LNG, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility that will be built by the Haisla Nation in Kitimat, B.C.  Poirier noted in the letter how TC Energy […]

The B.C. government has fined Coastal GasLink (CGL) nearly $600,000 for failing to protect the environment during construction of its contentious pipeline, bringing the total financial penalties for the project to almost $1.4 million.  The province’s Environmental Assessment Office issued the latest penalties on Sept. 11 for breaching the terms of the project’s environmental assessment […]

The call starts as a run-of-the-mill internal corporate presentation.  With a cheerful preamble, Liam Iliffe, a  B.C.-based political staffer turned industry executive, introduces  himself to his colleagues at TC Energy,  a major North American energy company that builds and operates crude  oil and natural gas pipelines and other energy infrastructure. He  summarizes his background working […]

Shannon McPhail said she felt like the “world’s biggest schmuck” after reading an email from a senior official at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The official told her it was “impossible to confirm” how many living salmon eggs were in the path of the Coastal GasLink pipeline at a major river crossing. With wild salmon populations […]