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Now in government themselves, the New Democrats are planning to repeal that tax regime to improve the economics for a different project — LNG Canada — one in which Petronas had recently acquired a 25 per cent stake.

“Why are we going out of our way to offer a better deal than even the B.C. Liberals were willing to consider to bring an LNG industry to British Columbia?” Weaver challenged.

Because of changing markets and commodity prices, Horgan replied.

“When the former government put in place their LNG tax, they had an expectation of higher market prices, which would have led to potentially more revenues coming to the province.

“But as prices continued to be soft and demand continued to be flat, the prospect of an investment started to fall away. We saw proponent after proponent after proponent leaving the province because with the framework that was in place from the previous government, it wasn’t possible to realize a final investment decision.”

Among the projects to fall away was Pacific NorthWest LNG, its demise announced one week after Horgan took office as premier. But LNG Canada, backed by Shell and partners in China, Japan and Korea (and now the Malaysians) remained active.

So the New Democrats crafted a combination of tax and regulatory relief for LNG Canada estimated at some $6 billion in relief over 40 years while still returning a projected $22 billion over the same period.

“The member and I have had long discussions about this,” said Horgan, addressing Weaver directly. “He understands the issue very well. If we are going to have a successful climate action plan and a robust economy, we have to keep our energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries in a position of being able to be positive and also meet our climate objectives.”