ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
September 25, 2020 | Understanding Future Demand for Heavy Oil
Scientist and public communicator Blair King, PhD, explains why the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project is a good bet for Canada. Here’s why Alberta oil will remain relevant in a post-pandemic world In the last couple weeks the campaign against the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project has been turned up to 11. My […]
September 24, 2020 | 8 Reasons We’re Not as Divided as you Might Think on Energy and Climate
Canadians agree strongly that oil and gas is important to the country’s current and future economy, they support environmentally responsible development of the sector, and they support oil and gas exports. Here are some findings from a new uOttawa survey. A research centre at the University of Ottawa released public opinion survey results in mid-September […]
September 23, 2020 | Lower Nicola Indian Band Chalks Up Several Firsts with Pipeline Service Project
First Nation-owned transmission line near Merritt brings BC Hydro green power to Trans Mountain pipeline. Stuart Jackson, chief of the Lower Nicola Indian Band (LNIB) and and chair of its development corporation, said in a news release dated Sept. 14 that the distribution line is “the first electricity transmission line to be majority-owned, operated, maintained […]
September 22, 2020 | A Corridor to Prosperity?
What if Canada had a dedicated nation-wide “corridor” for infrastructure: road, rail, power, telecom, cyber and pipelines? What if Canada had a dedicated nation-wide “corridor” for infrastructure: road, rail, power, telecom, cyber and pipelines? It’s a vision of the non-profit, non-partisan C2C2C Unity Corridor Foundation: “A safe, secure and sustainable nation-wide infrastructure pathway will link the country, open vast, […]
September 21, 2020 | The Oil Sands Aren’t Dying – and Canada Still Needs Them to Thrive
This opinion article from our Stewart Muir was published by The Globe & Mail on Sept. 16, 2020. Stewart Muir (pictured) is executive director of Resource Works based in Vancouver and convened the recent Task Force For Real Jobs, Real Recovery. This article can also be read at this link by Globe & Mail subscribers. Back in May, […]
September 20, 2020 | Mass Timber Becoming Must Timber
We’ve kept an eye on mass-timber buildings since the Tallwood House student residence at UBC was topped off (in 2016) at a world-record 53 metres and 18 storeys. Resource Works catches up on the latest trends. Tallwood was an early leader in some other strengths of “plyscrapers.” It met LEED Gold environmental standards, and it used sustainable […]
September 13, 2020 | Report Finds Public Trust Levels in Forestry Linked to Low Awareness
Calling for objective reporting about British Columbia forest management, the old growth study is a call to action for educational efforts to bring context and build understanding. Much of the public is not well informed or engaged regarding old forests and forest management, according to a provincial study released Sept 12. “This appears to be […]
September 12, 2020 | Amid COVID-19 Economic Strains, Forest Recommendations Weigh Heavily
NEWS ANALYSIS: Residents of dozens of British Columbia forest communities are on edge. Will the province’s most renewable industry be allowed to continue after the release of a new provincial study? Stewart Muir looks at the facts. While there’s no telling what the Gorley-Merkel report on old growth forestry management will say when it is released in the […]
September 11, 2020 | Task Force Raises the Bar for Envisioning a Clean and Prosperous Future
The Real Jobs, Real Recovery initiative brought together 36 organizations from across Canada to show a leadership path for decision making at the national level. Resource Works served as the convening platform for the project, marking the first time the BC-based organization has stepped up to a national mandate. “The timing was right for the […]
September 10, 2020 | National Forest Week: “Healthy Forests, Healthy Future
British Columbia municipalities including Prince George are declaring National Forest Week Sept. 20-26 locally as the commemoration celebrates 100 years. Resource Works is partnering with the Canadian Institute of Forestry / Institut forestier du Canada to support British Columbia forest communities in marking National Forest Week, Sept. 20-26. Prince George was among the first municipalities […]
September 9, 2020 | Natural Resources? Cut the Red Tape
One of many things for Ottawa to address as it drafts Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery: red tape. Red tape – the elaborate and time-eating processes of application, review, public input, hearings, evaluation and (if lucky) final approval of major natural-resource projects in Canada. One oft-cited example is the $11.4-billion Pacific NorthWest LNG project in BC […]
September 8, 2020 | Imagining the Future of Canada’s Oil and Gas Industry
Building backward, not building back better, is the risk of shunning innovation in the four-fifths of global energy that comes from fossil fuels. A recent opinion piece in The Globe and Mail said that “Canada shouldn’t spend to revive a dying dream” – another shot at the country’s largest industry – the natural gas and oil sector. […]
September 7, 2020 | Rewriting the Rules for Radicals
Fresh hope for a pandemic playbook for 2021 that will help guide the Canadian energy sector out of today’s doubt and uncertainty. Canada’s most valuable single natural resource asset today is the Athabaska oil sands. Since the identification during World War II as having strategic economic potential, they have led to a positive transformation in […]
August 17, 2020 | Task Force delivers solutions for the future of natural resources in Canada
The Real Jobs, Real Recovery is a national project drawing on the input of organizations representing more than 3 million Canadian workers. Resource Works was convenor for the Task Force for Real Jobs, Real Recovery, a Canada-wide 36-member coalition of industry, business, labour and Indigenous groups from mining, construction, forestry, labour, chemistry, transportation, oil & gas […]
August 8, 2020 | Recovery Strategy: “Focus on the Leading Economic Engines”
It turns out that industries producing the materials at the centre of modern life can be a driving force for economic recovery after the pandemic. Stewart Muir looks at how the new Stronger Tomorrow strategy looks to leverage, and evolve, longstanding job and GDP pillars in the natural resource sector. Timely ideas Released July 29 […]
August 7, 2020 | How Natural Resources Can Relaunch the Canadian Economy
In the COVID-19 recovery phase, natural resources are well-positioned to step in to assume their traditional leadership role in creating wealth and jobs for Canadians, writes economist Philip Cross. Natural resources are the largest industry in Canada outside of government, generating $262 billion or 13.9 percent of GDP in 2016. Their relative importance has only […]
August 6, 2020 | Old Growth, New Beginning
The province of British Columbia’s Old Growth Strategic Review tackles head-on an issue that has bedevilled the government for decades: ensuring that the seemingly polarizing values of forest protection and public prosperity can somehow be harmonized. Stewart Muir looks at the issue. “A new approach” The review was struck one year ago reporting to […]
August 1, 2020 | What are the rules for Net Zero?
Strategic assessment of climate change says new Canadian mines, power plants, pipelines and railways will be covered, but lacks details on how changes to them – and the global energy system – will be measured or enforced. Overview of changes In an article here in June, we wondered how our federal government plans to get […]
July 13, 2020 | What’s Required for Canadian Economy to Recover from the Pandemic?
The one-word answer is: Jobs. Jobs of all kinds, but most of all we need to see the kind of high-paying, long-lasting jobs typically associated with investments in economic growth potential, writes Stewart Muir. Thinking big in the quest for change Well remunerated, permanent jobs are associated with high skill levels and often have a […]
July 7, 2020 | The Green Recovery – and some inconvenient truths
Wishful thinking and empty promises aren’t helping with the needed energy transition. It’s time to turn our minds and our will to the hard work of transformation by mid century based on the realities of our society and our economy, writes Mike Cleland. Canada’s two energy economies Most Canadians today agree that Canada and other […]
June 29, 2020 | Hydrogen: Grey, Blue, and BC Green
We have a social-media follower that we can count on to tell us, frequently, that the real “fuel of the future” is hydrogen. We can understand his thinking: What better than a zero-emission fuel that, when burned, leaves behind nothing but water? No greenhouse gases or noxious particles; no pollution, no problem. Hydrogen also burns […]
June 22, 2020 | Energy Transition: Canada’s Policy?
The last crystal ball we had was a kid’s marble from a Christmas cracker. So we’re not about to make our own predictions about the fate of oil. We’ll ignore Green MP Elizabeth May’s silly claim that “oil is dead,” and will look instead at what professional predictors are seeing in their digital crystal balls. […]
June 16, 2020 | Legislators Get a Briefing on the State of the Natural Resource Sector
Resource Works looks at presentations made by forestry, mining, energy and ranching representatives to British Columbia MLAs. Stained glass windows in the British Columbia Legislature. It’s an annual ritual in Victoria: civil society organizations representing a vast range of interests troop one by one before legislators to provide the latest information about the challenges and […]
June 12, 2020 | REALITY CHECK: Guess Who’s Got the Most to Lose from Rash Decisions on Economic Recovery?
We’re at a moment of economic stress, with competing visions for how Canadian society should return to normalcy through the pandemic crisis. Stewart Muir looks at the situation. Road to pandemic recovery It’s plain to see that pursuing successful recovery means choosing responsible utilization of the natural resources owned by each province. Now more than […]
June 9, 2020 | Coming up: BC’s Cleanest LNG
Look out. Look ’way out. And stop looking at today’s depressed spot prices in a rocky world market that’s too full of surplus LNG. Look instead to, say, 2024-2025 – which is where the investors in Woodfibre LNG and LNG Canada are looking. They expect by then, as they prepare to go into production, strong […]