ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES

The Chamber supports the prudent development of British Columbia’s vast energy and mineral resources in a manner that creates competitive advantages to the BC economy, creates an ability to ensure British Columbia consumers can access energy economically from BC-produced resources, creates export opportunities for energy and mineral developers, creates jobs and income in British Columbia to help support the Province’s social fibre and is undertaken in an environmentally responsible manner that directly considers the positions of stakeholders and First Nations across British Columbia.

The materials derived from mineral and petroleum deposits, the power derived from energy resources, and the activities and necessary infrastructure associated with their discovery, development and distribution are crucial to the continued economic growth of this province and Canada. Revenue flowbacks from commodities, including energy, can support BC infrastructure and social services as indeed energy sales have foryears.

BC is well endowed with these primary resources, and government at all levels need to energetically promote the development of those resources for the future economic and social benefit of our society.

Guidelines for Action
Although The Chamber advocates the careful management and wise use of the natural environment, the preservation and enhancement of the social and economic environments essential for the welfare of humanity is nevertheless imperative. This requires continued and enhanced production of such resources as metals, coal, natural gas, coal bed methane, industrial minerals, electric power etc. Consequently, review processes of proposed resource developments must balance the impact on the natural environment against the social and economic requirements of society for the products recovered. Duplicative review processes between Provincial Government Agencies or duplication between Federal and Provincial processes must be eliminated. The approval process must be efficient and transparent, and “one-stop shopping” processes must be used wherever possible to create a more attractive investment climate for project developers.

The benefits which should accrue from specific resource development are often threatened by review and permitting delays which undermine investor confidence and result in a loss of market opportunities. Time is of the essence and it is essential that government investigations be made promptly and decisions be rendered expeditiously. Duplicative processes must be eliminated. The provincial government must establish a transparent process with definitive timelines for the development and permitting of energy and mineral opportunities and must ensure that the fiscal regime is conducive to continued capital investment in British Columbia’s resources sector.

Mineral Resources
A more positive investment climate that will be conducive to revitalising the exploration and development of the mineral resources of BC must be created by government at all levels.

Energy
The development of energy resources must be for the primary purpose of establishing a secure supply of energy for provincial benefits. The provincial government is also encouraged to create the climate for open competition in the energy market and must continue to address the structure and framework of British Columbia’s electric sector to ensure electric infrastructure will support the ability of British Columbia to be self sufficient while creating export opportunities and supporting the economic competitiveness of the Province. In this respect, we note the deteriorating supply/demand situation in BC after a number of failures to add generation on Vancouver Island. We further note the IPP community’s deteriorating level of confidence as expressed in a letter from the Independent Power Producers Association of BC after the Duke Point failure in 2005. We further note that even before the Duke Point failure, two of Canada’s largest and most respected power generation firms refused to bid on the Duke Point project, citing unreasonable commercial terms in BC Hydro’s Energy Purchase Agreement. This bodes poorly for the future of significant IPP capacity in BC, and particularly significant green IPP’s. Given that BC Hydro has not built significant capacity itself for decades, an inability to rapidly add significant power capacity may exist in BC absent government intervention to change the policies and practices of BC Hydro with respect to the IPP industry.

BC is blessed with significant renewable energy potential (wind, biomass, biogas, run-of-river hydro, geothermal, tidal sources, and solar applications); yet very few renewable projects have been developed in the Province compared to other Canadian jurisdictions. BC Hydro’s policies with respect to its Call For Tenders and Energy Purchase Agreements, and its unwillingness to date to “load shape” for renewables, are seen as significant barriers to development and in getting the Province to a position of Self Sufficiency and creating an exportable surplus of electric energy.. The Chamber believes that the Province should create a climate within which British Columbia would become a renewable energy leader in North America and attract both renewables projects to be constructed and spawn support industries such as manufacturing plants and related value added services to build a presence in British Columbia and support economic growth in the Province.

The Chamber would also note the looming skills shortage in British Columbia with respect to the electrical industry generally. Technical skills are difficult to attract and retain within BC Hydro and BC Transmission Corporation (BCTC) and The Chamber is concerned with other jurisdictions luring technical skills away from British Columbia. The Chamber believes that specific focus by the Provincial Government is required to ensure the right skills and competencies, both technical and commercial, are available to BC Hydro and BCTC to ensure the electric system in the Province is well managed from a reliability and future growth perspective.

The Chamber notes that although BC has a robust natural gas industry exporting in the range of half its production, BC’s crude oil reserves are extremely low and BC imports about 70% of its crude and petroleum products, paying in the order of $2 billion per year to Alberta and the state of Washington for imports. This should be viewed as an unacceptable situation both in economic and supply security terms. Given the new federal government, immediate action should be taken to reopen BC’s offshore oil and gas, putting the province on an equal footing with the Canadian Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and indeed, even Lake Erie in Ontario. BC is the only province/territory in Canada to suffer a province-wide blanket moratorium on the offshore, an industry which today employs approximately 20,000 directly and indirectly in Atlantic Canada. This unjustified discrimination must end.