Canada’s ambition to become a global energy powerhouse has taken a recent blow, with major investor Warren Buffett opting to withdraw last month from an expected $2.9-billion investment in the $10-billion Énergie Saguenay natural gas pipeline in northern Quebec because of growing national protests over pipeline environmental impacts and effects of routes on indigenous tribes.
Developer Énergie Saguenay is now reassessing options for the pipeline about 130 miles north of Quebec City, having lost, at the “very last minute, a major potential private investor,” said Stéphanie Fortin, a company spokeswoman in an email. She declined to name the investor, but Canadian media have widely identified the legendary Omaha billionaire and investor and his firm Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett’s decision follows February protests sparked by Canada First Nations and environmental activists against the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia that for a time effectively shut down the country’s rail system and sparked confrontations with police.