The $33-billion Phase 2 expansion at LNG Canada's Kitimat facility will roughly double output to 28 million tonnes per year and create up to 4,000 construction jobs at peak, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday in Vancouver.

The project, which Carney called the second-largest LNG export facility in the world once complete, will take the 14-million-tonne-per-year Phase 1 plant to twice its current nameplate. LNG Canada shipped its first Phase 1 cargo to Asia last year, becoming Canada's first operational large-scale LNG export terminal on the northern Pacific coast.

In a written statement, LNG Canada CEO Chris Cooper framed the project as a partnership-driven undertaking. "LNG Canada Phase 2 is another nation-building investment that demonstrates Canada can build big things when governments, First Nations partners, local communities, skilled trades, contractors and investors work together with shared purpose," Cooper said.

Carney tied the capital commitment to export markets. "It will connect low-cost, low-carbon Canadian energy to global markets," he said.

Who is behind LNG Canada?

The operator is a five-partner joint venture:

• Shell
• Petronas
• PetroChina
• Mitsubishi Corporation
• Korea Gas Corp

How does Phase 2 change the upstream and midstream footprint?

Phase 2 lifts feed-gas demand from the Montney and other northeast B.C. plays developed through hydraulic fracturing. The expansion ties directly to Coastal GasLink, the 670-kilometre pipeline that has moved Montney-sourced gas to the terminal since Phase 1 startup. LNG Canada said it is working with Coastal GasLink to add capacity through five new compressor stations across northern B.C.

A segment of the existing pipeline route crosses territory where Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs and their supporters blocked construction in early 2020, leading to nation-wide protests and RCMP arrests. The new compressor station work sits within the same broader routing footprint.

On the upstream side, increased gas demand will translate into additional fracturing activity. Regulators and researchers have linked hydraulic fracturing in the Peace River region near Fort St. John to a rising frequency of induced seismicity.

Where does the project sit in Canada's LNG debate?

The expansion has attracted climate-related criticism. Activists and the B.C. Greens have called for a moratorium on LNG growth, citing emissions increases upstream and overruns at the existing terminal, where flaring volumes have previously exceeded permitted levels according to regulatory filings reviewed by CBC.

The Carney government has designated LNG Canada's Phase 2 a project of national importance. A federal climate report has separately warned Canadians to prepare for a future 5 C hotter, with longer summer droughts and glacial retreat in western Canada.

What is the provincial-political backdrop?

The federal announcement landed one week before the B.C. election on Oct. 24. Both the B.C. NDP and B.C. Conservatives have pledged to expand LNG output if they form government. B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson announced a plan Monday to triple LNG production by 2035 and brand the province an "energy superpower."

Skeena-Bulkley Valley Conservative MP Ellis Ross, a former chief councillor of the Haisla Nation, dismissed the political framing. "It's really a nothingburger, it's a bunch of politicians taking credit for something they had nothing to do with," Ross told reporters.

What to watch

• Federal permits and final investment decision timing for the five Coastal GasLink compressor stations
• The B.C. election on Oct. 24 and any change to LNG royalty or emissions frameworks
• Continued regulatory scrutiny of flaring volumes at the existing Phase 1 terminal as Phase 2 throughput is layered on