Resource World Magazine

EPILOGUE D a vid D uva l Industrial development in Western democracies no match for Chinese W hen it comes to getting things done it's hard to beat the Chinese model of industrial development. While riding roughshod over people's rights would certainly not work in Canada – or in most other western democracies for that matter, the economic impact on China's largely agrarian population has been dramatic. Hundreds of millions of Chinese have been pulled out of poverty and given the opportunity to achieve a measure of economic prosperity. Hunger in China has largely been eradicated and the country's citizens are freer today than ever, although the oppressive weight of the state is always present. (Not that things are much different in this part of the world with security agencies intercepting the phone messages of foreign leaders such as German Chancellor, Angela Merkel). Within a few decades, or less perhaps, China might well be enjoying most of the democratic rights that we hold dear owing to the fact so many of its citizens are bringing home the democratic values they learned after being educated in the west. Nonetheless, as China expands its economic power at breakneck speed, the economies of Western nations, including Canada's, are growing slowly, if at all. Over regulation and special interest groups have slowed the rate of resource development, in particular, to a glacial pace. In the 1980s it was not unusual to see a mineral deposit achieve commercial production in Canada within two years after its discovery. Today, you could be looking at a decade or longer! Is it any wonder that investors are reluctant to put money into exploration companies when their investment returns could be a decade or more away? One high profile situation in central British Columbia, the Taseko Mines New Prosperity copper-gold project near Williams Lake, has been trying for approximately 22 years to achieve commercial production. But it's locked in a winner-take-all battle with environmental and native groups – and it would appear the Federal government itself – to get the project permitted. Taseko's development scheme includes an extra $300 million comprehensive plan to save nearby Fish Lake which has been the centre piece of protests by special interest groups, including First Nations. Just recently the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) Review Panel reviewed the plan and concluded it would contain "significant environmental effects." Taseko subsequently refuted the conclusions in the CEAA report, noting the panel members erroneously assumed that the tailings storage would be placed on the ground instead of on an engineered liner (as in the revised plan), thereby preventing seepage into Fish Lake. 62 www.resourceworld.com RW December 2013.indd 62 While the company hasn't given up on the project, they are facing an uphill battle that won't end without further controversy. And they are facing arguments from a familiar playbook as the following statement from Taseko suggests: "Taseko believes that opponents to the mine in aboriginal communities have used culture and heritage inappropriately as a weapon by exaggerating the value of the areas that will be impacted by the mine and their use of those particular lands and resources for cultural purposes." The $1 billion New Prosperity Mine would generate 550 permanent jobs for 20 years, plus 1,280 indirect jobs. Pipelines are another flashpoint, not only in British Columbia but across the international boundary between Canada and the United States. The Obama administration expects to make a decision for the Keystone pipeline in early 2014 and the odds of approving it are looking increasingly long given the well funded environmental lobby opposing it. Keystone would transport synthetic crude oil from the oil sands of Alberta and crude oil from the northern United States mostly to refineries in the Gulf Coast of Texas. Canada has warned the US that it will likely see a sharp increase in cross-border, crude-oil shipments by rail if the project is not approved and environmental groups are gearing up for battle on that issue too. BC's liberal government has made the development of the province's natural gas resources in the northeast a leading component in its future growth projections. The government, but not the province's taxpayers it seems, understands that the current fiscal deficit can only be eliminated with additional revenues from resource development. Otherwise, the taxpayer is going to pick up the tab. The hallmark of the province's LNG development program is a 750-km pipeline that would link gas fields near Hudson's Hope to two proposed LNG plants on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert on the coast. Malaysia's national oil company, Petronas, has announced it will spend $16-billion to develop the LNG project if approved. The proposed Northern Gateway Pipelines Project of Enbridge Inc. would involve construction of a twin pipeline approximately 1,200 km long running from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat on the northwest coast of BC. The eastbound pipeline would import natural gas condensate and the westbound pipeline would export bitumen from Alberta's oil sands to a new marine terminal at Kitimat where it would be transported to Asian markets by oil tankers. Missed opportunities such as these will see everyone in BC paying much higher taxes – perhaps sooner than they think. n DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014 12/11/2013 6:12 PM D R V I JA V P R

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