Economy
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Aluminum producer Rio Tinto is the main employer in the municipality. Local government, schools, small manufacturing and service/retail are secondary contributors. Secondary core activities include engineering, import of petrochemical products (methanol and condensate), and metal fabrication. Approximately $5 billion in manufacturing investment is anticipated in the 2010–2015 period with a further $5 billion-plus in the investigative stage over the next decade.[citation needed] Anticipated investment includes an approximately $2 billion modernization to the Rio Tinto Alcan facilities and $3 billion in the Kitimat liquefied natural gas export development on Haisla Industrial Land at Bish Creek. The export facility would see natural gas piped in from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (particularly from shale gas developments such as the Montney and Horn River) and shipped to Asian markets. The LNG Canada project, a joint venture between Shell and affiliates of Petronas, Mitsubishi Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation and PetroChina would, if permitted, begin construction in 2015 of a gas pipeline from northeastern BC and a LNG export terminal with an expected lifespan of 30 years. The terminal, located on the Douglas Channel near the aluminum refinery, would be able to accommodate two LNG vessels at a time. Annual volume would be 24 million tonnes. In July 2014 the Financial Post reported that Apache Corp. will "completely exit" the Kitimat LNG mega-project planned for B.C.'s West Coast. The U.S. hedge fund Jana Partners LLC has pressured Houston-based Apache to sell its 50% stake in the BC shale gas plays.
Pending energy projects that have identified Kitimat as a strategic gateway include Pacific Northern Gas' Pacific Trail Pipeline (federal and provincial environmental assessments issued) and the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines (currently being reviewed by the National Energy Board).
Additional investigations into clean energy developments include a Kitimat port development project featuring break-bulk port facilities and consideration of the best uses for the former Eurocan Wharf.[citation needed] In addition, the decommissioning of the former Eurocan pulp and paper facilities or a slimmed down operation are still under consideration. There is also renewed interest in mineral development potential in the Kitimat area. The neighbouring community of Terrace is also in advanced stages of approval for a number of clean energy projects along with the associated infrastructure for linking those projects to the provincial electrical grid.
Air services for the community are provided through Northwest Regional Airport, with connections to Prince George, Smithers, and Vancouver.
Kemano hydroelectric project[edit]
External mediaKemano-Kitimat transmission lineImages CatenaryVideo Helicopter landing on catenary
In the 1920s, the provincial government of British Columbia extensively evaluated the province's hydroelectric generating potential. In the late 1940s, the Canadian Government sought to tap the untapped resources of northwest British Columbia. All this led to the identification of the Eutsuk/Ootsa/Nechako River drainage basin as a potential site for a sizable reservoir. The potential of this vast system of rivers and lakes prompted British Columbia to invite Alcan to conduct a detailed investigation of the area. Alcan was searching for a site for a large aluminum smelter, an activity requiring vast amounts of electricity. Alcan concluded that the area was more than adequate to generate the required electricity, and decided to build a smelter there. The timing was right because the post-World War II boom saw a rising demand for aluminum.
Between 1951 and 1954, after signing the agreement with the British Columbia government for land and water rights, Alcan undertook the Kitimat–Kemano Project, one of the most ambitious Canadian engineering projects of the 20th century. The project required not only building the Kenney Dam to reverse the Nechako River, but also boring a 16 km (10 mi) tunnel under Mt. Dubose, within the Coast Range, to the large hydroelectric Kemano Generating Station built under Mt. Dubose. Electricity from Kemano is transported 80 km (50 mi) across mountains via a custom built twin circuit transmission line. After avalanches tore away transmission towers, a catenary system was built.
In three years, 6,000 construction workers built the dam, tunnel, powerhouse, transmission line, smelter, and town.
The town of Kitimat was carved out of old-growth forest. The company invested over CA$500 million (equivalent to CA$3.3 billion) and employed over 35,000 workers over the five years required to build the Kenney Dam, the hydropower plant under Mt. Dubose at Kemano, a 250,000 tpy aluminum smelter, a year-round deepwater port, a townsite designed for a population of 50,000, and a paved highway to the outside world. As a result of this project other companies saw the potential of the area, resulting in further industrial development in the Kitimat valley.
LNG Canada terminal project[edit]
On 1 October 2018, Royal Dutch Shell and its Asia partners gave formal approval to an estimated $40 billion investment into the construction of a new liquified natural gas port terminal project named LNG Canada, coupled with the construction by a subsidiary of TransCanada of a gas pipeline, known as the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, linking this terminal to the Montney, British Columbia, natural gas field.
When completed, LNG Canada will become the first Canadian LNG export ocean terminal, which will compete with other LNG terminals in the US, either existing or planned on the West (Alaska, Washington, Oregon), Gulf (Louisiana, Texas) and Atlantic coasts (Maryland, Virginia).
In October 2023, pipeline installation on the project was 100% complete.
This new terminal being built in the port of Kitimat will be connected to the Pacific Ocean via the existing Douglas Channel. This development will add new sensitive ship traffic when the LNG Canada natural gas storage and liquefaction terminal will be completed and operational, which is estimated to be in 2025. The LNG Canada terminal project will see large LNG carrier ships loading liquefied natural gas at the future Kitimat LNG terminal, and sailing along the Douglas Channel to carry it to export destinations, mainly in Asia.
Pacific Future pipeline and refinery[edit]
The Pacific Future Energy Refinery was projected to refine more than 30,000 m3 per day of nearly solid bitumen of the Western Canadian Select variety for at least 60 years. Grupo Salinas were the owners, and "European technology" was touted as the solution to environmental ills. The construction of the plant was budgeted at $11 billion and included carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Capacity would be increased in 200,000 bpd stages that would cost $6 billion. Simeco, a Milan engineering and construction firm would provide the design. Modules would be built in Asia and transported to Prince Rupert, British Columbia for assembly. The project headquarters was in Vancouver. When the project was announced in June 2014 the funds has yet to be assembled, and a preliminary venture round for design work was budgeted at $250 million. Stockwell Day was hired by the proponents, as well as Shawn Atleo and Ovide Mercredi. The Northern Gateway pipeline, originally proposed by Enbridge, would have supplied the resource.
Opponents of the project included SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, and Haida people First Nations, as well as the Kitselas, Metlakatla and Gitga'at tribes of Tsimshian people.
The CEO of Pacific Future, Samer Salameh, notified the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) in December 2024 of the project's failure, and on 11 February 2025 Minister Steven Guilbeault wrote that the sponsors confirmed that they had discontinued the project, and that "This letter provides [Pacific Future] with notification that I have terminated the environmental assessment for the project."
