News & Reports

We’re still awaiting the rules and regulations that the federal government is drafting to execute its plan to achieve net-zero emissions in Canada by 2050. Industries and resource projects from coast to coast to coast know they will be compelled by 2050 to eliminate or offset greenhouse-gas emissions, but how?

As the world becomes more and more digital, and manufacturing becomes greener, there will be increasing demand for critical metals, minerals and rare earths. And Canada can play a key role in supplying them.

BC's mining industry contributes $7.4 billion to BC’s economy (GDP). It spends $3 billion to purchase goods and services from 3,700 small, medium and Indigenous businesses in 215 BC communities. And it spends $330 million on exploration.

So how is this critical industry coping with the carbon price? And why do governments seem set on making it more difficult and expensive for our mines to operate, and more difficult to compete in world markets? 

Climate statistics from California show that the long-awaited new pipeline will usher in an era of cleaner choices for the populous state. Skeptical? Stewart Muir assesses the big picture.

The federal Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) is coming soon. Here are 12 things you need to know (and what it will cost you).

A fellow we see constantly on social media greets pretty much every post about oil and gas with a simple: “H2 is the answer.” We can understand his enthusiasm for hydrogen, a fuel you can burn to provide energy, and the only emission at the end is ... water. No greenhouse gases, no noxious particles, no pollution, no problem.

Trouble is, that word "simple” is all too true.

Residents of Campbell River looked to define and describe the pillars of the local economy.

When everything goes right and a major resource project moves forward, the benefits flow for decades. Stewart Muir explains why this is.

EXCERPT: Enjoy this sampling of Brian Lee Crowley’s important new book Gardeners vs Designers: Understanding the Great Fault Line In Canadian Politics.

Slapping the word "clean" on a policy signifies high hopes for its environmental effects. That sparkle wears off quickly if the result turns out to be costly, clunky or counterproductive because it is driven by the stick of regulation rather than the carrot of positive business incentivization. Stewart Muir looks at how market-driven solutions can show promising results in creating climate improvement.

Patricia Mohr, an advisor to the Task Force for Real Jobs, Real Recovery, was a guest on CBC's The Current to discuss options for federal action.

Scientist and public communicator Blair King, PhD, explains why the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project is a good bet for Canada.

Radio host Adler invited Muir onto his program on Sept. 17, 2020.

Canadians agree strongly that oil and gas is important to the country's current and future economy, they support environmentally responsible development of the sector, and they support oil and gas exports. 

First Nation-owned transmission line near Merritt brings BC Hydro green power to Trans Mountain pipeline.

Margareta Dovgal of Resource Works chats with Energy Examined about how support for Canada's resource sector could create 2.6 million jobs while driving action on climate change.

What if Canada had a dedicated nation-wide “corridor” for infrastructure: road, rail, power, telecom, cyber and pipelines?

This opinion article from our Stewart Muir was published by The Globe & Mail on Sept. 16, 2020.

We’ve kept an eye on mass-timber buildings since the Tallwood House student residence at UBC was topped off (in 2016) at a world-record 53 metres and 18 storeys. Resource Works catches up on the latest trends.

Calling for objective reporting about British Columbia forest management, the old growth study is a call to action for educational efforts to bring context and build understanding.

NEWS ANALYSIS: Residents of dozens of British Columbia forest communities are on edge. Will the province's most renewable industry be allowed to continue after the release of a new provincial study? Stewart Muir looks at the facts. 

The Real Jobs, Real Recovery initiative brought together 36 organizations from across Canada to show a leadership path for decision making at the national level.

British Columbia municipalities including Prince George are declaring National Forest Week Sept. 20-26 locally as the commemoration celebrates 100 years.

One of many things for Ottawa to address as it drafts Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery: red tape.  

Building backward, not building back better, is the risk of shunning innovation in the four-fifths of global energy that comes from fossil fuels.

Fresh hope for a pandemic playbook for 2021 that will help guide the Canadian energy sector out of today’s doubt and uncertainty.

The Real Jobs, Real Recovery is a national project drawing on the input of organizations representing more than 3 million Canadian workers.

It turns out that industries producing the materials at the centre of modern life can be a driving force for economic recovery after the pandemic. Stewart Muir looks at how the new Stronger Tomorrow strategy looks to leverage, and evolve, longstanding job and GDP pillars in the natural resource sector.

In the COVID-19 recovery phase, natural resources are well-positioned to step in to assume their traditional leadership role in creating wealth and jobs for Canadians, writes economist Philip Cross.

The province of British Columbia’s Old Growth Strategic Review tackles head-on an issue that has bedevilled the government for decades: ensuring that the seemingly polarizing values of forest protection and public prosperity can somehow be harmonized. Stewart Muir looks at the issue.

Strategic assessment of climate change says new Canadian mines, power plants, pipelines and railways will be covered, but lacks details on how changes to them – and the global energy system – will be measured or enforced.

This month and next, Resource Works is supporting a national effort to recommend the best path forward out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's the latest on our work.

The one-word answer is: Jobs. Jobs of all kinds, but most of all we need to see the kind of high-paying, long-lasting jobs typically associated with investments in economic growth potential, writes Stewart Muir. 

Wishful thinking and empty promises aren’t helping with the needed energy transition. It’s time to turn our minds and our will to the hard work of transformation by mid century based on the realities of our society and our economy, writes Mike Cleland.

We have a social-media follower that we can count on to tell us, frequently, that the real “fuel of the future” is hydrogen. We can understand his thinking: What better than a zero-emission fuel that, when burned, leaves behind nothing but water? No greenhouse gases or noxious particles; no pollution, no problem.

The last crystal ball we had was a kid’s marble from a Christmas cracker. So we’re not about to make our own predictions about the fate of oil. We’ll ignore Green MP Elizabeth May’s silly claim that “oil is dead,” and will look instead at what professional predictors are seeing in their digital crystal balls.

Resource Works looks at presentations made by forestry, mining, energy and ranching representatives to British Columbia MLAs.

Eager to move off the full-throttled despair and chastising that boils over in the clash of ideas about energy? Offering insights and practicality while many of us are still cooped up at home, Stewart Muir talks about realistic solutions to the problems we're facing.

We’re at a moment of economic stress, with competing visions for how Canadian society should return to normalcy through the pandemic crisis. Stewart Muir looks at the situation. 

Look out. Look ’way out. And stop looking at today’s depressed spot prices in a rocky world market that’s too full of surplus LNG. Look instead to, say, 2024-2025 - which is where the investors in Woodfibre LNG and LNG Canada are looking.

The coronavirus pandemic represents the largest disruption of BC’s labour market in our history. Uncertainty and fear among many businesses, workers, customers and the general public about the continuing pandemic affects how we grasp the new normal and move beyond the crisis. Human resources expert Kerry Jothen weighs in.

Like never before, providers of materials essential to society are under pressure to accept and lead change. Finding inspiration in this dynamic setting means seeking out ideas that can survive in the real world. Stewart Muir looks at some of the ways that people – especially those who work in natural resource fields – are adapting.

So supporters of a big shift to "green" are putting heat on our federal government to turn Canada into a shiny world leader for renewable energy, now that “oil is dead.” They promote it to Ottawa as a part of the new normal they want to follow the COVID-19 pandemic. But does this logic make sense?

Non-Indigenous elected officials are staying quiet about a title deal made with a small group of unelected hereditary chiefs, despite calls for transparency from elected Wet'suwet'en chiefs. What's really going on in this challenging situation? Stewart Muir, who travelled widely in the affected areas earlier this year, weighs the facts so far.

Resource Works, already recognized by UVic researchers as one of Canada’s Top 50 most influential organizations in the resource space, has now caught the attention of an American anti-tar-sands crusader writing in Rolling Stone magazine.

Pushed by anti-LNG pressure groups, District of Squamish councillors have decided to offer their own response to emissions reduction guidelines set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), urging the BC Environmental Assessment Office to refuse a five-year environmental certificate extension for the $1.6 billion Woodfibre LNG project. The councillors supporting this motion are getting a couple of things very wrong.

A recent documentary backed by filmmaker Michael Moore and directed by Jeff Gibbs, Planet of the Humans, has received effusive praise from the most surprising of audiences. Moore, of course, is known for pointed critiques of capitalism and American politics. Yet oil- & gas-loving conservatives are among the film’s most vocal champions on social media. What gives?

The COVID-19 response has changed the boundaries between the public and the private sectors. Post-pandemic Canada will have to function differently than pre-pandemic Canada.

With humanity demanding products like masks, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, reliable 24/7 fuels and medical products based on plastic and metal, there's no getting away from it: the world needs Canada's resources. And herein lies the solution for troubled times.

Unrecoverable personnel and overhead costs make up 90 per cent of losses due to regulatory delays.