Article content continued

“This is an important project, but, at the moment, the funding is not completely in place,” Legault said regarding GNL Québec’s project on Feb. 25, according to media reports.

“GNL Québec needs major investments to land this project. The boards of directors of investment firms must be watching the current situation carefully”, said Julien.

But within the Legault administration, some suspect that Berkshire Hathaway actually didn’t believe the business case for the project was strong enough.

“The only explanation we’ve heard of is that the outlook over the next 20 to 25 years wasn’t as much as they’d hoped for. So the political climate is a good excuse to back out without scaring off other investors who may still think it’s promising,” said one source with direct knowledge of the situation.

“They’re aiming for the export market and the cards are current being shuffled on the world stage. The added competition, notably from Russia, made it that the international natural gas market wasn’t as certain as previously expected,” continued the source.

Photo by Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press/File

Despite that, the fund’s decision to pull out was remarkably sudden. For example, GNL Quebec and Gazoduq went on a “hiring spree” in the last few months because they were certain that they had the funding to move forward with Berkshire Hathaway.

Since then, multiple hires have been put on hold by both firms, as they “reassess” their needs and priorities in the short and medium term.

In other cases, employees who were hired for a certain task have been reassigned to different departments, a source confirmed.

One such person who left their job because GNL Québec had recruited them told the National Post that their hiring had been suspended, leaving them in a limbo. The person asked to not be named.

Next week, GNL Quebec’s liquefaction complex project will begin Quebec’s environmental assessment. As of now, both the complex and the pipeline are slated to be completed and begin operation in 2025.