I attended The Premier's Natural Resources Forum last week along with a couple hundred other people from across North America. I have attended this event the last few years and it gets bigger every time. There was a lot of excitement this year as it looks like a significant amount of proposed natural resource development will actually go ahead. Some people are calling this the natural resources renaissance and I couldn't agree more.
Renaissance, of course, means rebirth. Northern B.C. experienced its first natural resource boom in the 1960's. This is when B.C. Hydro built most of its dams and also when the pulp mills arrived in Prince George. While economic times were mostly good in the mean time, there was no real spike in activity like we are on the verge of seeing now. What is striking about the current situation is the diversity of natural resources that are ripe to be developed. This should go along way to dampening the boom and bust cycle of our northern economy.
LNG is probably the sector with the most potential. Starting from scratch, there are at least half a dozen LNG projects with a credible chance of going ahead sometime within the next decade. Each one will cost tens of billions of dollars, sums unheard of in B.C.'s past. To put this in perspective, the largest proposed LNG plant will cost about the same as the entire yearly budget of the BC government. The other positive aspect of LNG is that its benefits are not confined to one region. The northwest is where the LNG plants will be located but the northeast will also benefit as that is where most of the natural gas will be extracted.
While mining has always been part of B.C's history, the sector has been quiet for the past decade or so. That's changing too. Mount Milligan is the first mine to be commissioned in a decade and there is more to come. I have previously written about B.C. Hydro's Northwest Transmission Line going north from Terrace to Bob Quinn Lake. This is being built primarily to power a number of mines which should all come online within the coming years.
Forestry is the bread and butter of our region and there is reason to be hopeful for its future too. Forestry went through some very tough times in the 1990s but its future is very bright. Demand for our lumber is driven largely by US housing construction. That market collapsed in 2007 and after many years in the doldrums, it appears to be growing again. But we are not solely reliant on the US anymore. The Chinese market for our lumber, which didn't exist just ten years ago, has been steadily growing with no signs of slowing down.
The economy of northern B.C. was built on natural resource development. If our economy is to experience a renaissance then it will surely be built upon natural resources again. I definitely hope so; it is an an exciting time to be living in northern B.C.
