Alberta’s recent objection to a new $1.4 billion pipeline from B.C.’s northern gas fields is the latest blow to a northern economy still staggered from cancellations of liquefied natural gas projects and threats to kill BC Hydro’s $9 billion Site C dam.
The frustration is particularly close to the surface in the northeast, which has the only oil and gas projects working in B.C. The five projects are a far cry from what was expected just two years ago. Many locals blame southern media, environmentalists and politicians for helping to scuttle resource projects that the north provides and the provincial economy depends on.
“I would not say it’s just a bit frustrating; I would say it consumes our lives,” said Moira Green.
Green is the economic development officer for Fort St. John, the second-largest city in the north, a major natural gas hub and a city that nearly borders the Site C dam site.
A perceived threat to cancel Site C by the BC NDP government in 2017 – a threat later taken off the table – stoked north
ern suspicion that southern politics trumps northern prosperity.
Green said it’s a never-ending source of discussion around Fort St. John, that elitist (read southern B.C.) sentiment toward projects like the Site C dam is negative, and backing resource investments for economic reasons is shortsighted and narrow-minded.
“It’s infuriating that we cannot be heard because we’re the provincials, the uneducated, the ‘how could you possibly know what’s good for us rural dwellers,’” Green said.
Many northerners also blame the provincial government for the recent pipeline-sparked trade war with Alberta. The temperature of that dispute was cooled significantly February 22 when Alberta Premier Rachel Notley rescinded the province’s boycott of B.C. wine after B.C. Premier John Horgan said his government would seek court clarification over the province’s constitutional authority to restrict bitumen flowing through B.C.
Northerners still see Alberta’s filing against the new gas pipeline as the latest salvo in that battle, though both Victoria and Edmonton deny it.
Last week, the Alberta government filed its objection over TransCanada Corp.’s (TSX:TRP) $1.4 billion, 301-kilometre North Montney Mainline project that would run from gas fields near Dawson Creek.
TransCanada is looking to build the repurposed pipeline to bring B.C. gas to markets in the East, as it originally planned to bring gas to the shuttered Pacific NorthWest LNG project in northern B.C.
But B.C. also wants to levy a tariff on the pipeline that all users would have to pay. Alberta argues that Alberta producers would be expected to help pay for a gas pipeline that would be built to benefit B.C. gas producers.
“This is all part of the politics around the oil pipelines,” said Dawson Creek Mayor Dale Bumstead of the latest interprovincial dispute. “It has just moved upstream.”
B.C. plans to review the impacts a diluted bitumen spill would have on the environment so it can prohibit any increased flow of oilsands bitumen through the Trans Mountain pipeline to an export terminal in Metro Vancouver.
Alberta has already suspended electricity purchase talks with B.C. and imposed an import ban on B.C. wine in protest.
Alberta’s energy minister said its stance against the Mainline gas project is unrelated.
“Our filing has nothing to do with the recent dispute with the government of B.C. This is about standing up for Albertans and our energy industry,” said a statement emailed to BIV from the office of Alberta Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd.
“Our position is that rolled-in tariffs will result in subsidization beneficial to the B.C. North Montney extension project at the expense of existing Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. [NGTL] shippers. This negatively impacts our royalty income, taxes, and Albertans’ employment in the sector.”
But Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier noted that Alberta hadn’t expressed opposition to the project until now.
TransCanada had planned to start construction on the project this year, subject to regulatory approvals.
The pipeline would feed into its existing NGTL mainline and give producers various options, including deliveries to local distributors, Eastern Canada, the U.S. Midwest or to California and the Pacific Northwest.
It would also pipe liquids needed to facilitate the flow of Alberta oilsands bitumen.
A 2015 study estimated the project would pump more than $800 million into the B.C. economy, including $8 million in property taxes to the Peace River Regional District. Construction is expected to create up to 2,500 direct jobs.
TransCanada said it would also add a $2.4 billion expansion to its NGTL system to deal with the increased supply.
The National Energy Board approved the North Montney Mainline pipeline in April 2015, attaching 45 conditions to the project. B.C. granted the project an environmental certificate in January 2017. •
– With files from the Alaska Highway News
White coats and collars trump hard hats and boots
The overarching employment narrative of northern B.C. is that of oil and gas extraction and mining, but studies show that northern workers are three times as likely to work in a medical facility or a store than in a mine or the petroleum field.
The Northern Development Initiative Trust’s State of the North report, released January 9, reveals that the health sector accounted for 1,058 northern businesses and retail trade for another 1,582 companies. This compares with a total of 503 firms that employ people in the oil and gas sector.
The study found that in 2016 the mining, oil and gas industries employed around 7,500 people, with 4,800 of them in the northeast. This is an increase from 5,800 total jobs two years ago. All of that growth has been in the northeast.
This compares with 24,000 people employed in health care and social services, according to a Chartered Professional Accountants of BC (CPABC) study.
The CPABC estimates that nearly the same number work in wholesale or retail trade.
The economic power of the health-care industries is not lost on Dawson Creek Mayor Dale Bumstead. The northeast city, he said, has been lobbying the province for a new $250 million, 44-bed hospital.
“If the northern resource economy is to grow, we need better medical services,” Bumstead said.
Overall, the northern employment picture has improved since the State of the North report was published. As of January 2018 the unemployment rate was 3.8% in the northeast and north coast regions, down from 10.5% and 7.5%, respectively, a year earlier, according to WorkBC.
– Frank O’Brien
