TC Energy Corp. says it has closed a deal that gives five First Nations an economic interest in the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which brings natural gas from northeastern B.C. to the LNG Canada plant and export terminal in Kitimat, B.C.

Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.

“This agreement turns years of partnership into long-term economic opportunity and shared prosperity,” François Poirier, president and chief executive of TC Energy, said in a news release Tuesday.

Under the agreement with the FN CGL Pipeline Ltd. Partnership, the First Nations have obtained an economic interest in the entity that holds TC Energy’s limited partner interest in Coastal GasLink. Its members include the Haisla Nation, Halfway River First Nation, McLeod Lake Indian Band, Saulteau First Nations and West Moberly First Nations.

“This investment framework recognizes the importance of partnership, financial certainty and shared prosperity, while supporting our communities’ ability to make decisions about our own economic future,” Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly First Nations said in the release.

TC Energy operates Coastal GasLink and has a 35 per cent interest in the pipeline, with KKR & Co. and Alberta Investment Management Corp. holding the rest on behalf of certain clients.

Tuesday’s deal is the first of two planned Indigenous investment transactions related to Coastal GasLink. TC Energy says a second transaction with another First Nations entity is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

In 2022, TC Energy announced the signing of option agreements to sell a 10 per cent equity interest in the pipeline to Indigenous communities across the project corridor.

The company recently announced plans to double the existing capacity of the 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline, which feeds gas to LNG Canada, by adding new compressor stations and upgrading facilities.

For the second phase of the pipeline, LNG Canada — owned by Shell Canada and four Asian partners — is leading construction, limiting the Coastal GasLink owners’ spending and cost and schedule risk. The Coastal GasLink partners remain owner and operator.

Construction is to begin in early 2027 and the pipeline is set to come into service in the early 2030s.

The decision came after LNG Canada announced a final greenlight for the Phase 2 expansion of its facility, which enables natural gas chilled into a liquid state to be shipped across the Pacific. The first phase started up in the summer of 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2026.