Two legal challenges to Woodfibre LNG’s “floatel” application to house workers on for the LNG project have been thrown out by Canada’s Federal Court, the Canadian Press reported on June 23.

In May, Woodfibre LNG filed an application with regulatory agencies to add a second floatel for employees to be housed on as they construct the 2.1mn tonne per year (tpy) project, which is located about 10 kms from Squamish, British Columbia.

However, activist groups filed two legal challenges to the decision by Canada’s Impact Assessment Agency to approve Woodfibre LNG’s use of a repurposed cruise ship to house the workers.

Activist group Citizens for My Sea to Sky challenged the project in Canada’s Federal Court claiming that further public consultations should have been held after Woodfibre scrapped its initial plan to ferry-in employees from Squamish and Vancouver to work on the project.

A second legal challenge was filed on claims that nearby communities could face a “heightened risk” of gender-based violence due to an inflow of “a largely male construction workforce”.

Canada’s Federal Court ruled that conditions to prevent gender-based violence were enacted by British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Office, citing the forbidding of workers from entering the city of Squamish for non-work purposes. The federal judge found there was no evidence that the measures imposed were “insufficient”.

Additionally, the judge ruled that the federal agency acted fairly when it determined that the floatel’s use “would not result in increased impacts on the environment.”

Currently, Woodfibre’s employees are housed on the company’s first floatel the MV Isabelle X as they build the 2.1mn tpy facility at the site of an abandoned pulp mill.

Early construction began on the facility on Canada’s west coast in autumn 2023 and was initially expected to be completed in 2027.

However, Reuters reports that speaking at an energy conference in Tokyo on June 20, Canada’s assistant deputy minister of natural resources Erin O’Brien stated that timelines for the project have been pushed back to it being brought online in 2028.