Drilling Frenzy Arrives in Canada’s Pristine Wilderness
As countries around the world scramble to secure fuel to run their power plants, natural gas has attracted energy producers to Canada’s westernmost province.
The LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, British Columbia.
Photographer: James MacDonald/Bloomberg
Stretching from the ice-capped Canadian Rockies to the island-studded coastline, British Columbia has been long renowned as an outdoorsman’s paradise. Canada’s westernmost province is home to vast temperate rainforests, popular ski resorts and cold Pacific waters teeming with salmon. In the town of Dawson Creek, near the Alberta border, intrepid travelers stop for photos beneath a sign marking “Mile 0” of the Alaska Highway, a 2,232-kilometer (1,390-mile) passage through one of North America’s most rugged, stunning and grizzly-dotted landscapes.
These days, the tourists driving deep into northeastern British Columbia are often sharing the road with another seemingly out-of-place group: gas drillers on their way to work.