Premier Clark: Debt-Free B.C. Starts with LNG Development (Canada)

The booming natural gas industry is strengthening British Columbia’s economy and securing tomorrow by creating jobs, returning benefits to communities, and generating revenue for a Debt-Free B.C.

During a stop at Dawson Creek Reclaimed Water Project, a partnership between Shell and the City of Dawson Creek, Premier Christy Clark saw the progress, momentum and growth in northeast BC.

“The northeast is home to B.C.’s economic opportunity of a lifetime,” said Premier Clark. “By developing natural gas in northeast BC and turning it into liquefied natural gas (LNG) in northwest BC, we can create over 39,000 construction jobs, and over 75,000 jobs once LNG plants are in operation.”

“I’m here in northeast BC today to acknowledge the important contributions this region and its people make to our economy and to commit that we will ensure local communities share in the benefits of our natural gas opportunity,” said Premier Clark. “That’s why I’m committed to extending the current revenue sharing agreement with the Peace region beyond 2020.”

Premier Clark, Peace River South candidate Mayor Mike Bernier, and former local MLA and BC Reform Party leader Jack Weisgerber toured the facility together.

“I’m proud of the people in our resource industries who continue to innovate and ensure we meet the highest environmental standards,” said Clark. “We should celebrate our resource industries, not attack them like the NDP with their job-killing policies.”

Bernier highlighted the threat posed by the NDP’s policies to the region’s economic future. A new tax on the natural gas industry proposed by Adrian Dix and the NDP would drain $210 million in direct revenue from the industry over the next three years.

“We have seen our area prosper because of the BC Jobs Plan,” said Bernier. “Here in the Peace we are right next to the Alberta border. Investment can leave quickly or not develop at all. The NDP threatens our future by creating a new natural gas tax.”

Natural gas in the Northeast will fuel BC’s LNG opportunity. Today’s BC Liberals have set a goal of at least three LNG facilities online by 2020. In just one year, $7 billion has been invested by natural gas companies to be a part of this new industry and Japan has provided $10 billion in loan guarantees to Japanese companies that are interested in B.C.

LNG is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for greater economic prosperity, but we have to move without delay. Driving forward, Today’s BC Liberals will build on our progress by:

• Enacting legislation to protect the BC Prosperity Fund from becoming a ‘cash-cow’ for wasteful and desperate government spending; and,
• Once provincial debt is repaid, protect the principal accumulated in the Prosperity Fund to ensure its long-term sustainability for future generations.

BC’s natural gas opportunity is threatened by the NDP’s hostility to business.

They have not shown industry the clear positions that investors need, oppose the development of clean-energy Site C, and are discussing a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, even though B.C. is already a world leader in the responsible recovery of the resource.

[mappress]
LNG World News Staff, April 23, 2013; Image: gov.bc.ca