Some people in the business community want the New Brunswick government to lift the moratorium that has prevented fracking since 2014 .
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Some people in the business community are urging the New Brunswick government to further develop natural resources, including natural gas deposits. They are calling for the lifting of the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in place in the province since 2014.
The CEO of the New Brunswick Economic Council, Gaëtan Thomas, advocates for the province to further develop its mining and gas resources, including shale gas.
In New Brunswick, natural gas development is the largest opportunity.
A quote from Gaëtan Thomas, CEO of the NB Economic Council
Gaëtan Thomas believes that exploitation natural gas would allow a boom in the province's economy.
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It will help a lot of businesses, the government and I sincerely believe that it will help the First Nations, says Gaëtan Thomas.
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Gaëtan Thomas said in a full-page column published last Friday in Acadie Nouvelle that the development of natural gas is a “crucial” element for the economic future of New Brunswick.
He maintains that the province cannot afford to continue to turn its back on its resources when the needs are enormous.
It would change a lot of things for New Brunswick. We are having difficulty providing top-notch health and education services. We need to buy new systems and new equipment, he said.
New Brunswick has experienced strong opposition to hydraulic fracturing in the past. This technique, which is the subject of strong criticism around the world, cracks the rock via injections of water at very high pressure into the ground. It then allows the shale gas found there to be recovered.
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Indigenous and non-Indigenous people demonstrated several times in 2013 against exploration work by a shale gas company in southeastern New Brunswick.
In 2013, riots took place in Kent County. Patrol cars were set on fire and around twenty people were arrested. Since then, a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing has been imposed indefinitely due in particular to the lack of social acceptability.
Gaëtan Thomas thinks that times have changed.
We can lift the moratorium, but by having environmental rigor. […] A moratorium was not meant to be permanent the way I understood that. We are still talking about tens of billions over the years that could be injected into the province, he continues.
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Hydraulic fracturing extracts natural gas or oil by injecting water, sand and additives into a pressure well drilled into the rock (Archives).
The former boss of New Brunswick Power also thinks that natural gas could serve as a transition energy. If the province wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, in accordance with Ottawa's objectives, New Brunswick will have to produce hydrogen but all experts say that hydrogen comes through gas natural. .
The CEO of the mining exploration company Major Drilling International, which is present in around fifteen countries to carry out mining exploration, will further.
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The CEO of the mineral exploration company Major Drilling International, headquartered in Moncton.
Denis Larocque believes that we must not only lift the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, but also develop uranium. This metal, which is used to power nuclear power plants, has been banned from exploration and exploitation since 2008 in New Brunswick.
If the resources are there people will come but immediately we have the sign 'closed'. on the door so people go elsewhere, believes Denis Larocque.
This plea finds support from the vice-president of Liberty Utilities, Gilles Volpé, also a member of the Board of Directors of the Conseil économique du N.-B.
Liberty Utilities is the primary distributor of natural gas in the province. The company has 12,500 customers in 14 communities.
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The president of Liberty Utilities (formerly Enbridge gas New Brunswick), Gilles Volpé.
If the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing were to be lifted, Gilles Volpé could be a buyer of this shale gas if it was at an affordable cost and comparable to what we are able to buy today. x27;at the level of natural gas.
The natural gas distributed by the company comes mainly from Alberta and New -England, a tiny part of New Brunswick produced by the company Headwater Exploration in the Sussex region.
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The Sussex region, where is located the Headwater Exploration well, is the only place in the province to have an exemption on hydraulic fracturing since 2019.
He is also in favor of lifting the moratorium, but to do exploration initially. According to him, exploration work and feasibility studies should be repeated to confirm the size of the deposits.
If there are natural gas reserves which are what we believe then we must do exploration to confirm that it is indeed there and two that we can do so. extraction of this gas at an affordable and globally competitive operating cost. We support this because it can be economically affordable and has the potential to reduce energy costs in New Brunswick, he said.
These business people agree that these industries do not get a good press, but that there is a need to develop them.
On natural gas, things have changed enormously over the years. Procedures have changed enormously in the industry and I think we should look at that to have an informed point of view, says Denis Larocque, CEO of Major Drilling International.
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RCMP officers and protesters in Rexton, New Brunswick in the fall of 2013.
< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">For Gaëtan Thomas, there is still a path towards social acceptability of this resource, but it passes through indigenous communities.
We must ensure that benefits are shared equitably and that natural gas is developed responsibly, he says.
< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">The Department of Natural Resources and Energy confirms in a statement that the moratorium [on hydraulic fracturing] remains in effect and that it will not x27;there have been no recent changes and uranium mining is still prohibited in the province.
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