Gas investment remains strong
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The recession hasn’t slowed down the land rush for new natural gas drilling rights in northeastern B.C.
B.C.’s October rights sale for natural gas drilling properties brought in $370 million, bringing the total for 2009 to more than $700 million with two monthly sales still to go. Most of the bids were for properties in the Montney region north of Hudson’s Hope, one of two major shale gas deposits that have been the focus of B.C. drilling development in recent years.
Gas companies snapped up 58 of 62 properties offered in the October sale, paying an average price per hectare of $5,625, the second-highest in B.C. history.
The growing natural gas industry now accounts for more than 28 per cent of B.C.’s resource revenue, and has been worth more than mining or forestry since 2001.
Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom said the province’s August “stimulus package” contributed to the latest results, along with a recovering price for natural gas. The government cut royalties to two per cent for the first year of production, which Lekstrom said will result in wells being brought into production that would otherwise not be.
Treaty committees cut
Local government treaty advisory committees have taken a cut along with many other non-core services in the provincial government, says Aboriginal Relations Minister George Abbott.
After meeting with councillors at the recent Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, Abbott says the 17 committees around the province are getting $5,000 to fund their activities this year. Councillors are paid extra to work with aboriginal communities on local concerns such as sewer and road services.
Abbott’s predecessor Mike de Jong told the four Lower Mainland committees early this year they would have $45,000 between them, but that’s been cut to $20,000 and is consistent province-wide, Abbott said.
The budget for the committees has gone up and down over the years, and the latest decision does not reflect a reduced role for them, Abbott said.
“We live in a kind of harsh world where all of the streams of revenue that underwrite programs have dried up, so we did our best to fund them,” he said.
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