Over the potholed streets, sleepy strip mall and handful of bars that make up downtown Kitimat, the flare stack burns all day and night at the gas terminal.

Despite the “largest private sector investment in Canadian history,” the town looks much the same – although rents have doubled since LNG Canada started construction.

Regardless of the name, the gas terminal has zero Canadian owners. The consortium is made up of Royal Dutch Shell and oil companies from Malaysia, China, Japan and Korea.

And the $40 billion price tag? Much of that was spent in China, where Chinese workers built the terminal out of Chinese steel. The modules were then floated over to Kitimat for assembly.

Any local benefits are largely wiped out by the billions in cash subsidies, tax breaks, BC Hydro discounts and tariff exemptions showered on the foreign investors by our politicians.

It’s a bonfire of taxpayer money, lighting up the sky over Douglas Channel.

Meanwhile our premier tours cities in Asia, trying to drum up customers for the next big gas terminal. This one would be built overseas, on a floating platform in Korea with money from Wall Street.

Western LNG’s biggest investor is a top donor to Donald Trump. So the proceeds from B.C.’s resources would literally be funding Trump’s authoritarian political movement.

It makes no sense. And when Canadians find out PRGT is an American-owned, American-built PRGT pipeline, they oppose it 2 to 1 – even in Alberta.

It’s a growing political liability for Premier Eby. And it’s a big opportunity for Indigenous leaders, Green politicians and anti-Trump organizers across the country to build public support.