Teck Resources is withdrawing its application to build its Frontier project north of Fort McMurray.
The oil company announced on Sunday evening they were cancelling the project as they no longer see a ‘constructive path forward for the project.’
In a letter to Jonathan Wilkinson, Federal Minister of Environmental, Teck President and CEO Don Lindsay says Canada currently doesn’t have a middle ground for the economy and the environment.
“Global capital markets are changing rapidly and investors and customers are increasingly looking for jurisdictions to have a framework in place that reconciles resource development and climate change in order to produce the cleanest possible products,” he said.
“This does not yet exist today and unfortunately, the growing debate around this issue has placed Frontier and our company squarely at the nexus of much broader issues that need to be resolved.”
The federal government was expected to make a decision on the project in the coming days.
It would have created around 7,000 jobs during construction and another 2,500 through operations.
In a statement, Premier Jason Kenney says this is a sad day for Alberta.
“Alberta has lost the opportunity for 7,000 jobs and Canada has lost the opportunity for $70 billion of dollars in new tax and royalty revenue that could have funded our generous social services over the next four decades.”
He also believes the long approval process is too blame.
“Weeks of federal indecision on the regulatory approval process and inaction in the face of illegal blockades have created more uncertainty for investors looking at Canada. Teck’s predicament shows that even when a company spends more than $1 billion over a decade to satisfy every regulatory requirement, a regulatory process that values politics over evidence and the erosion of the rule of law will be fatal to investor confidence.”
The project had publicly been supported by multiple local Indigenous companies. This includes the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Miksew Cree First Nation who would have been directly next to the project.