Coastal GasLink is 670 kilometer natural gas pipeline and 6000 plus employess are working on this project.
With its completion at almost 90 per cent the 7 Mile Lodge will be dismantled and the land reclamation process will end by the end of next year.
Justin Yee TC Energy, parent company of Coastal GasLink, media lead person in B.C. said, “They are 90 per cent complete now, the goal is to complete construction by the end of this year and they are on track for that obviously, 10 per cent less to go right now.”
He said, the next step of the project will be completed by the end of this year. Then they will move into the reclamation process, fees, testing and commissioning and it is supposed to be slated for 2025.
Right now, in their operational phase they are testing and doing patrols across the pipeline. They have devices that run in and out of the pipeline and to make sure there are no problems and they will also do helicopter aerial monitoring. Next year, they will focus more on getting the pipeline ready to move onto the operational phase.
Yee said, “Pipeline construction is pretty brief in the sense that you get the friendship date you put in the pipeline, you cover the pipeline with dirt, and then you restore the land above it to match the original environment.”
At some point, the lodge will be decommissioned but has been delayed because of the wildfires. He said, “Seven Mile has always been planned for decommissioning.”
Right now, they are providing commendations for firefighters at 7 Mile Lodge. Their focus is to provide the support that the community needs for firefighters during the wildfire season.
Previously on June 14, Kiel Giddens, Public Affairs Manager with TC Energy made a statement about its operations on 7 Mile Road, ‘after completion of 90 per cent, the lodge will be dismantled and workforce will be reduced.’
Yee is said, “We are still operating 7 Mile Lodge and it’s not really a case of moving from 7 Mile to Huckleberry.” With the workforce numbers dropping down over the spring season, less workers are being lodge at 7 Mile Lodge.
He said, “They don’t have the workforce numbers over there anymore.”
Huckleberry is still very much an operational workforce accommodation. As different sections are completed, gradually, there are less people working in that area and they will start to be mobilized to different lodges when they get closer to the end of construction.
About workers employment, Yee’s statement said, ”It’s more so the nature of the work, try a lot of people who are working in these sorts of big projects, they move around quite regularly. They’re going to try create and preserve as many jobs for local people especially indigenous people.”
With the unprecedented wildfire situation, Yee is not sure when the decommissioning and land reclamation process will start.