Roughly the same time New Brunswick was debating and ultimately killing its shale gas opportunity (Nova Scotia had already banned it), British Columbia was starting to develop its shale gas industry in the Montney shale formation using hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
Thanks for the thorough review of the history of natural gas sector in our province. Having personally worked on trying to develop this industry here 15-20 years ago (back during its brief heyday (??)) I can vouch for the potential benefits this province missed out on. New Brunswick has a history of "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" (economically speaking). I should add that the available natural gas sampling and testing at that time revealed large deposits in about half of the province, with major ones well away from the McCully field. I have long since lost my files detailing this information but I am sure that someone within our Dept. of Natural Resources probably still has them.
You are correct in that there is always a group here that is against any new industry, or any change for that matter. That is acceptable in any democracy and legitimate criticism should be welcomed to ensure the public fully understands the pros and cons. However, as is often the case, people often rely on opinions and half-truths rather than researching the issues themselves before deciding to be "all in" on opposing something. One has to ask themselves how it is possible that many other parts of this country have made the decision to develop natural gas opportunites very successfully and the sky didn't fall or all the groundwater become contaminated and unusable. Nothing is perfect but when the weight of evidence favors something you would expect politicians to strongly support it but here our politicians seem to be hypersensitive to any public demonstration of opposition - which is what happened in this case and ended the political support.
I find it ironic, to be kind, that rich jurisdictions like Alberta or BC, which contribute far more to Federal government tax coffers than they get back, unlike NB or NS (think Equalization payments), are some of the leaders in natural gas development. And they do this when they already have strong and growing economies so they don't have extreme pressure on them to take unnecessary risks to grow their economy and tax base. Meanwhile, our province which depends on billions of dollars from Ottawa just to maintain critical services roughly on par to the rest of Canada yet we, with our perennially weak economy, chose to not develop a lucrative industry solely based on the vocal opposition of a minority of the population. This fact is certainly fodder for other parts of Canada to look critically at this region. Their view may well be to question why Ottawa is sending so much money to a region that won't even take advantage of its natural resource growth opportunities and thus reduce it's dependence on Ottawa. That leads them to ask if things like Equalization are too generous and if it is acting as a disincentive to our standing on our own two feet?? Like it or not, that is a legitimate question. And never more relevant than right now.
Canada is locked into a trade dispute/war with the US, unfairly but that does change the fact. If things continue as they appear to be, Canada is going to take a hit economically possible for a much longer time than people expect. You can be sure that Ottawa, which will be spending billions helping prop up industries and companies hit by tariffs, as will provinces. This is going to be an expensive proposition as developing new markets to replace the markets destroyed by the tariffs takes time and effort. During this time, Ottawa is going to be under pressure to cut costs every where possible - including Equalization. There will be pressure to cut those payments to slow the growth or deficits and debt. With very little political power due to our small population, New Brunswick and the rest of Atlantic Canada will have little power to stop such cuts from happening. Lets say it gets cut in half. Imagine the shock to our system. Maybe half our hospitals have to close ?? The province certainly can't make up the difference in funding. Under those circumstances many people will be upset, including those that were vocally against the natural gas industry (and other economic growth) when ironically, such an industry might well have been enough to greatly reduce the impact of cuts to Equalization, maybe even keeping those hospitals open.
It is my hope that natural gas gets back on the province's radar for serious development (along with any other energy opportunities that show signs of economic viability). I hope that people will think about all my comments that the next time they are thinking about opposing the development of this industry or any other industries they do indepth research into it's pros and cons from credible sources.
Bill Gates wrote a book titled "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster," published in 2021. It should be required reading for everyone who wants to talk about energy. New Brunswick missed the boat on natural gas because ignorant people generally yell louder than informed, educated people. Bluster and baubles sell better than truth and science. Science is complicated and boring...Disney World is simple and entertaining.
It's not too late to drill for natural gas, but the army that would rise up against it is still waiting. I heard the NDP leader telling his audience, the people of Canada, that only the 'working man' possesses the knowledge and skill to run the country. He decries the 'elite' with their degrees from Oxford and argues that they are somehow not qualified to run the government because they are intelligent and successful. It is leaders like Jagmeet Singh, who don't understand that economics is a science and education is not evil, who would stop the development of every technology they don't understand.
Imagine what we could do as a province if we invested in the construction of multiple anaerobic digesters in all corners of the province? Laforge has been proving the technology for 15 years! Toss in liquid manure, farmed salmon, rotten fruit and veg, used cooking oil, abattoir offal, and the dozens of types of "waste" material being produced and BINGO! We can make renewable natural gas using what we have right now! We can build a digester directly on top of the pipeline. It can be owned by the farmers who are supplying it. The RNG can be sold within the province or sent to Europe. Farmers would PROFIT from cutting down on their on-farm GHG emissions, grocery stores and food services can stop sending organics to the landfills, and seafood producers can clear their pollution headaches (in the courts). RNG or biogas, it's a win-win for every New Brunswicker. New high paying jobs, greener and cleaner air and soil, higher yields from the farmland receiving the digestate, and would turn NB into an attractive place for European technology providers to use as a sandbox (thanks, Meaghan Seagrave!) to test new small scale technologies. We have all the right ingredients, literally and figuratively, to make this happen right now, this year. Everything is in place and the people are ready to do the work. NB has approximately 1,000,000 metric tonnes of available and suitable biomass on an annual basis. We just can't see the opportunity past the trees.....
The greenhouse sector (excl. cannabis) contributed much less GDP in 2023 than 20 years ago. Love to see energy solutions that would help that sector grow.
Each year opportunities pop up and somehow New Brunswickers successfully beat them down.
We can list all the reasons why new industries should not proceed, however we should also list the prosperity that could develop if we took the risk.
Impediments to new ventures are merely hurdles to be overcome, not insurmountable.
Wind, solar, biogas are all great for small applications, but will never ( and I mean never) fuel our industrial load.
Alberta and British Columbia have successfully integrated First Nation participation into extraction, pipelines and export terminals. Indeed one was to have a First Nation CEO.
A true celebration in New Brunswick would be to develop our own resources, use them for our own markets and export. Lots of challenges to do that..but not impossible.
So far the most “impossible” part is getting out of our comfort zone and looking after our own economy.
I have wanted to do the same with well-cleansed MSW organics as I was once involved in trying to mine MSW for use in producing compost but the lack of a way to sort effectively out the contaminants without source control impaired this approach.
My backup solution then was to use digesters for a number of the waste materials that can be fed into them. Even the resulting waste can be used in soil restoration. This province needs a business plan that focuses on how we can build a sensible energy policy. Loved your post.If you publish, I would like to follow you and learn more. My foray was in the mid-90s and not recently. So much has changed.
The gas is going to Asian markets - not European markets.
Thanks for the thorough review of the history of natural gas sector in our province. Having personally worked on trying to develop this industry here 15-20 years ago (back during its brief heyday (??)) I can vouch for the potential benefits this province missed out on. New Brunswick has a history of "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" (economically speaking). I should add that the available natural gas sampling and testing at that time revealed large deposits in about half of the province, with major ones well away from the McCully field. I have long since lost my files detailing this information but I am sure that someone within our Dept. of Natural Resources probably still has them.
You are correct in that there is always a group here that is against any new industry, or any change for that matter. That is acceptable in any democracy and legitimate criticism should be welcomed to ensure the public fully understands the pros and cons. However, as is often the case, people often rely on opinions and half-truths rather than researching the issues themselves before deciding to be "all in" on opposing something. One has to ask themselves how it is possible that many other parts of this country have made the decision to develop natural gas opportunites very successfully and the sky didn't fall or all the groundwater become contaminated and unusable. Nothing is perfect but when the weight of evidence favors something you would expect politicians to strongly support it but here our politicians seem to be hypersensitive to any public demonstration of opposition - which is what happened in this case and ended the political support.
I find it ironic, to be kind, that rich jurisdictions like Alberta or BC, which contribute far more to Federal government tax coffers than they get back, unlike NB or NS (think Equalization payments), are some of the leaders in natural gas development. And they do this when they already have strong and growing economies so they don't have extreme pressure on them to take unnecessary risks to grow their economy and tax base. Meanwhile, our province which depends on billions of dollars from Ottawa just to maintain critical services roughly on par to the rest of Canada yet we, with our perennially weak economy, chose to not develop a lucrative industry solely based on the vocal opposition of a minority of the population. This fact is certainly fodder for other parts of Canada to look critically at this region. Their view may well be to question why Ottawa is sending so much money to a region that won't even take advantage of its natural resource growth opportunities and thus reduce it's dependence on Ottawa. That leads them to ask if things like Equalization are too generous and if it is acting as a disincentive to our standing on our own two feet?? Like it or not, that is a legitimate question. And never more relevant than right now.
Canada is locked into a trade dispute/war with the US, unfairly but that does change the fact. If things continue as they appear to be, Canada is going to take a hit economically possible for a much longer time than people expect. You can be sure that Ottawa, which will be spending billions helping prop up industries and companies hit by tariffs, as will provinces. This is going to be an expensive proposition as developing new markets to replace the markets destroyed by the tariffs takes time and effort. During this time, Ottawa is going to be under pressure to cut costs every where possible - including Equalization. There will be pressure to cut those payments to slow the growth or deficits and debt. With very little political power due to our small population, New Brunswick and the rest of Atlantic Canada will have little power to stop such cuts from happening. Lets say it gets cut in half. Imagine the shock to our system. Maybe half our hospitals have to close ?? The province certainly can't make up the difference in funding. Under those circumstances many people will be upset, including those that were vocally against the natural gas industry (and other economic growth) when ironically, such an industry might well have been enough to greatly reduce the impact of cuts to Equalization, maybe even keeping those hospitals open.
It is my hope that natural gas gets back on the province's radar for serious development (along with any other energy opportunities that show signs of economic viability). I hope that people will think about all my comments that the next time they are thinking about opposing the development of this industry or any other industries they do indepth research into it's pros and cons from credible sources.
Bill Gates wrote a book titled "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster," published in 2021. It should be required reading for everyone who wants to talk about energy. New Brunswick missed the boat on natural gas because ignorant people generally yell louder than informed, educated people. Bluster and baubles sell better than truth and science. Science is complicated and boring...Disney World is simple and entertaining.
It's not too late to drill for natural gas, but the army that would rise up against it is still waiting. I heard the NDP leader telling his audience, the people of Canada, that only the 'working man' possesses the knowledge and skill to run the country. He decries the 'elite' with their degrees from Oxford and argues that they are somehow not qualified to run the government because they are intelligent and successful. It is leaders like Jagmeet Singh, who don't understand that economics is a science and education is not evil, who would stop the development of every technology they don't understand.
Thanks, Phil.
Imagine what we could do as a province if we invested in the construction of multiple anaerobic digesters in all corners of the province? Laforge has been proving the technology for 15 years! Toss in liquid manure, farmed salmon, rotten fruit and veg, used cooking oil, abattoir offal, and the dozens of types of "waste" material being produced and BINGO! We can make renewable natural gas using what we have right now! We can build a digester directly on top of the pipeline. It can be owned by the farmers who are supplying it. The RNG can be sold within the province or sent to Europe. Farmers would PROFIT from cutting down on their on-farm GHG emissions, grocery stores and food services can stop sending organics to the landfills, and seafood producers can clear their pollution headaches (in the courts). RNG or biogas, it's a win-win for every New Brunswicker. New high paying jobs, greener and cleaner air and soil, higher yields from the farmland receiving the digestate, and would turn NB into an attractive place for European technology providers to use as a sandbox (thanks, Meaghan Seagrave!) to test new small scale technologies. We have all the right ingredients, literally and figuratively, to make this happen right now, this year. Everything is in place and the people are ready to do the work. NB has approximately 1,000,000 metric tonnes of available and suitable biomass on an annual basis. We just can't see the opportunity past the trees.....
Love this idea.
Forgot to mention, we could build massive greenhouses next to each digester.
The greenhouse sector (excl. cannabis) contributed much less GDP in 2023 than 20 years ago. Love to see energy solutions that would help that sector grow.
Each year opportunities pop up and somehow New Brunswickers successfully beat them down.
We can list all the reasons why new industries should not proceed, however we should also list the prosperity that could develop if we took the risk.
Impediments to new ventures are merely hurdles to be overcome, not insurmountable.
Wind, solar, biogas are all great for small applications, but will never ( and I mean never) fuel our industrial load.
Alberta and British Columbia have successfully integrated First Nation participation into extraction, pipelines and export terminals. Indeed one was to have a First Nation CEO.
A true celebration in New Brunswick would be to develop our own resources, use them for our own markets and export. Lots of challenges to do that..but not impossible.
So far the most “impossible” part is getting out of our comfort zone and looking after our own economy.
In order to develop nat gas the support of the first nations will have to be obtained....
I have wanted to do the same with well-cleansed MSW organics as I was once involved in trying to mine MSW for use in producing compost but the lack of a way to sort effectively out the contaminants without source control impaired this approach.
My backup solution then was to use digesters for a number of the waste materials that can be fed into them. Even the resulting waste can be used in soil restoration. This province needs a business plan that focuses on how we can build a sensible energy policy. Loved your post.If you publish, I would like to follow you and learn more. My foray was in the mid-90s and not recently. So much has changed.