Can you clear up the reputation of WFLNG’s owner and comment on how his past business practices, including a conviction in the U.S. for tax evasion qualify him as a good partner for BC and Squamish?

Thank you for the questions Andrew.

The Woodfibre LNG Project is owned and operated by Woodfibre LNG Limited, a privately held Canadian company based in Vancouver with a Community Office in Squamish. We are a subsidiary of Pacific Oil & Gas Limited, which is part of the Singapore-based RGE group of companies.  RGE, also known as Royal Golden Eagle, was founded by Sukanto Tanoto, who is also its Chairman. RGE comprises of a group of companies that are focused on resource-based manufacturing industries and has a combined workforce of about 50,000 people worldwide.

RGE, and all of its companies, strive to achieve business objectives through a triple bottom line approach, where results are mutually beneficial to the community, the country, and the company.  In 2014, this triple bottom line approach to business resulted in two RGE subsidiaries, Asian Agri and Apical, signing the Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto, which commits the two companies to end all deforestation in High Carbon Stock forest areas and creates traceable and transparent supply chains.  Then just last month (June 2015), another RGE company, APRIL, announced a major update to its Sustainable Forestry Management Policy. This policy ends all deforestation in APRIL’s pulp and paper operations – a move that was applauded by both Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.  RGE’s Forestry, Fibre, Pulp & Paper Sustainability Framework makes similar commitments.

As for what you may have read online about allegations of tax evasion, we’d like to clarify that the Asian Agri case is still being heard before the Indonesia Tax Court, and Asian Agri reserves the right to appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court. While this case remains in dispute, Asian Agri has fully paid the imposed fine so as to safeguard the interests of various stakeholders, in particular the livelihood of 25,000 employees and 29,000 community farmers.

You may also be interested to know that Mr. Sukanto Tanoto is widely respected for his philanthropic efforts through the Tanoto Foundation which he founded. The Tanoto Foundation and its partners work together to support improved access to education, clean water, electricity, and health facilities for the poor in places where RGE companies do business, like Indonesia.

To learn more about RGE, visit Inside RGE.