By Cheryl Jahn

Horgan Keynote

Horgan addresses industry

Jan 29, 2020 | 4:52 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The LNG sector and mining were highlighted during Premier John Horgan’s noon-hour speech to 1,149 delegates at the Natural Resources Forum.

“I believe that LNG is an opportunity not just for Northern British Columbia, but for all British Columbians.”

He hailed LNG Canada and Coastal GasLink as two “titans” of LNG in this province right now. Horgan also had praise for the mining sector.

“Mineral exploration, in particular, is an area I want to touch upon. The Mining Jobs Task Force that we put together shortly after we formed government issued its report and we see a lot of positives in there. Over the past number of years, we’ve seen a spike in investments in mineral exploration between 2016 and 2018.”

LNG alone will generate $23 billion to “the Crown” to allow government the ability to make announcements like new hospitals in Fort St. James and elsewhere in the region.

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But Opposition Leader Andrew Wilkinson says the Premier’s speech has left him cold. When it comes to mining and LNG, he says those industries are seeing success despite this government.

“In mining, we have a province where there should be all kinds of activity going on and they’ve actually been scared off by the attitude of this government. And they’re going to Chile, they’re going to Idaho, they’re going to Mexico instead. We’ve heard that first hand from the industry.”

Horgan admitted the forestry industry, in its traditional way, is challenged.

“If we’re not prepared to address the realities that we face. If we’re prepared instead, to stick our heads in the sand and hope that a tax change or a shift in perspective from the United States will somehow allow us to flow greater volumes of forest products into the marketplace, we’re deceiving ourselves.”

But he noted, if we all agree that “getting more out of the forest” with diversification, there is a future to the sector.

But Wilkinson was, once again, unimpressed.

“Well, the Premier told us at lunchtime today that an 88% unemployment rate in former mill workers is somehow a success. He seems to think that a 25 per cent drop in lumber exports is okay. So we’ve got a premier who’s really lost touch with Northern BC and really has no interest in the revival of the forest industry. It’s all talk, no action.”

But peppered throughout Horgan’s speech was a caution that all of the resource decisions and action must be made with the lens of First Nations involvement.