Our thanks to Resource Works for compiling the facts and figures below:
The BC government draws billions in revenues from British Columbia’s natural-resource industries.
The province’s latest fiscal plan looks to earn $3.2 billion from natural resources in 2024-25, up from $3 billion in 2023-24. And it forecasts $3.4 billion in 2025-26 and $3.8 billion in 2026-27.
Municipal and federal governments also benefit from the resource sector, to say nothing of workers and their families, and those who supply natural-resource companies with goods and services.
The Business Council of BC says $80 billion to $100 billion worth of mining and natural-gas projects are waiting for decisions to be made.
But companies “don’t want to invest where things are uncertain, or where they don’t feel welcome.”
Members of BC’s incoming government should recognize all this, and know that there are important natural-resource items for governments both provincial and federal to put on their must-do lists.
Those include natural gas and LNG matters, regulatory issues, and economic reconciliation for First Nations.
Oil, gas, LNG
The natural-gas industry is close to surpassing forestry as a prime contributor to the British Columbia’s resource revenue.
The provincial government expects $684-million from natural gas for 2023-24, which is getting pretty close to the $691 million foreseen from forestry.
Natural-gas royalties paid to BC are forecast by the BC government to increase annually to $1.43 billion in 2027. For this, the province thanks “increased natural gas volumes related to production requirements of LNG.”
All in all, the province says: “The petroleum industry is one of BC’s success stories.”
In 2023/04, the industry is forecast to invest approximately $3.5 billion in the province, and is forecast to contribute over $2 billion in government revenues through royalties, resource taxes and tenures.
And the Business Council of BC notes that workers in oil and gas average $209,000 a year in income.
- More from the government at https://ow.ly/ON3Y50TSyu2
What does LNG mean to BC?
- At $2 billion in annual provincial taxes and royalties, the LNG sector could become one of the largest revenue generators in BC.
- It will mean an increase of $8 billion a year to the province’s GDP.
- Over 71,000 more jobs a year and over $4.6 billion in wages.
- And by 2064 over $78 billion in revenue would go to BC.
Those numbers are from the Conference Board of Canada. Which also, for Canada as a whole, sees LNG creating 96,550 more jobs a year and over $6 billion in wages. And, to 2064, $64 billion in federal government revenue.
LNG Canada, for one, reports: “Direct benefits to government over the life of our project alone will reach $23 billion, by the province’s own estimate.”
To date, the LNG Canada project alone has spent more than $4.7 billion on contracts and subcontracts with Indigenous and other businesses in BC. And more than 30,000 Canadians have worked on the project, which expects its first exports to go out in mid-2025.
As well, LNG production plants in BC will be the cleanest, helped by our cooler climate, and by more use of clean electricity.
- LNG Canada will operate with emissions of less than half the global LNG facility average.
- The Haisla-Nation-led Cedar LNG will operate with emissions of less than one third of that global average.
- Woodfibre LNG will operate with emissions less than one sixth of the average.
- The Nisgaa Nations Ksi Lisims LNG project will operate with net zero emissions within three years of its first shipment overseas.
Regulatory issues
Painfully slow approval processes by all levels of government affect natural-resource sectors across Canada.
Right now, two Indigenous LNG projects in B.C. are going through federal and/or provincial approval processes: the Cedar LNG project from the Haisla Nation and the Ksi Lisims LNG project proposed by the Nisga’a Nation.
Both mean new production, and new jobs and earnings for Indigenous people, income for their nations, and government revenues as well.
The federal Impact Assessment Agency now says it will deliver on this promise from Ottawa: “Complete federal assessments in five years or less, including any required permitting. On nuclear projects it’s three years.” But it doesn’t say when all this will begin.
It’s important for both BC and federal governments to reduce the red tape.
Reconciliation
Government moves to encourage and support economic reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples also have impact on resource industries.
The Haisla and Nisga’a nations see their LNG projects as providing long-term revenues and career opportunities for their peoples — economic reconciliation in action.
Chief Councillor Crystal Smith of the Haisla Nation: “Because of our Nation’s determination and environmental leadership, Cedar LNG will make the most significant mark on economic reconciliation ever in our country.
“With Cedar LNG, we have proven that Indigenous communities can successfully forge a path to economic independence and generational prosperity. We have created a model for how sustainable energy development should be done, with Indigenous Nations as owners, balancing environmental interests with global demand for cleaner energy.”
And hear Eva Clayton, president of the Nisga’a Nation, on its Ksi Lisims LNG project, and the PRGT pipeline that will feed it: “Ksi Lisims LNG project will be the heartbeat of our nation’s economy. It’s our best chance to build prosperity and a positive future for our people. . . .
“We have worked very hard to ensure our project is capable of achieving net-zero performance. We put forward an ambitious action plan for producing net-zero LNG right here at home to help lower global emissions by potentially displacing coal and oil overseas. . . . Economic reconciliation and net-zero LNG development go hand in hand.”
Chief Crystal on her Haisla nation’s benefits from the LNG Canada project: “We were tired of managing poverty. Our leadership was just tired of not having solutions. We saw the solutions coming through economic development.”
As a result of LNG Canada, she notes, the Haisla have been able to build a new apartment complex, a new health centre and have invested $5 million in a new Haisla language and culture centre.
“I want programs and services to meet our needs, not the level of government’s needs. And we need to make sure that it is sustainable not just for my grandsons or their peers but for seven generations beyond this one.”
There have been issues and questions raised around the Ksi Lisims project from other First Nations who could be affected. We at the First Nations Natural Gas Alliance say those are issues to be dealt with by the nations, without outside interference.
LNG Canada has long been a leader in economic reconciliation, working with the Haisla Nation.
And so has Woodfibre LNG, with the Squamish Nation actually being a formal regulator of the project, as well as a beneficiary. As a regulator, the Squamish have set 29 legally binding conditions for the project. Woodfibre LNG also has a benefit agreement with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
Woodfibre LNG has begun work on its site, and expects up to 800 jobs at peak construction, with hiring preference given first to qualified Squamish Nation members.
The Coastal GasLink pipeline that feeds LNG Canada has agreements with the elected councils of 20 First Nations along its route, and they have been offered options for equity ownership in the line.
And FortisBC has partnerships and benefits agreements with the Musqueam Indian Band for the expansion of FortisBC’s Tilbury LNG plant in Delta, and the associated marine jetty in the Fraser River adjacent to the Tilbury facility.
In the oil-and-gas extraction sector, Indigenous people in Canada make almost three times more than the average Indigenous worker ($140,400 vs $51,120 average employment income) and almost twice as much as working in mining ($93,600). And Indigenous women in particular benefit from working in the sector.
Now, as governments and Indigenous peoples work on economic reconciliation, we point out that if an economic downturn affects communities, it affects Indigenous communities far worse.
And we we urge governments at all levels to grasp the following shocking act, and bring about improvement:
- In 2021, Canada and its standard of living ranked sixth in the world according to the UN Human Development Index. But apply that index and its measurements to Canada’s Indigenous people, and they ranked not sixth but 63rd.
(Posted here 30 October 2024)
