News & Views

Extracting added value from commodities like minerals, energy, paper and lumber is the most realistic option we have to create more high-tech jobs in an era when over 70 per cent of global trade is in intermediate goods and services and capital goods.

Greener and more efficient use of our precious natural resources can only come from harnessing technology. In the Naturally Resourceful series, Resource Works writer Don Hauka looks at the British Columbia companies that are on the leading edge of this transformation. Eighth in the series.

The world is just as dependent as ever on basic materials that need to be responsibly sourced from somewhere. This can be challenging to understand  for those who've heard the arguments that Canada is a post-resource economy. This material can help.

British Columbia's highest productivity, highest paying jobs are in natural resources. But did you know resources are creating a stunning level of high-tech and clean tech jobs? Meet some of the companies driving this renaissance.

To mark the British Columbia Tech Summit, Resource Works looked at how foundational industries are at the leading edge of innovation. You'll be amazed at what we discovered.

Industry and government are paying the price for being tone deaf and numb to their obligations to First Nations and communities. Regulatory burden and uncertainty is another. Layer on top of that regulatory uncertainty and a lack of a real and clear commitment by governments, and it's clear Canada is in trouble. 

Canada has natural advantages in its oil and gas industry that the country would be wise to consider as it plans its energy future. The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, took time out from a recent visit to Winnipeg to explain what those are. 

Every woman, man and child in Canada benefits from the oil industry through the billions it pays in royalties, corporate taxes and other levies. According to Jamie Carroll, that includes the women, men and children living in British Columbia and Quebec.

In our haste for energy perfection, we are overlooking the more important need to sustain, over the long term, supplies of energy sufficient to let us maintain our standard of living. Stewart Muir looks at what we can do about this emerging crisis.

Electric vehicles? Solar panels? Wind turbines? None of the above. Educating girls and family planning in combination offer the greatest single opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Greener and more efficient use of our precious natural resources can only come from harnessing technology. In the Naturally Resourceful series, Resource Works writer Don Hauka looks at the British Columbia companies that are on the leading edge of this transformation. Seventh in the series.

Sobering thoughts from a retired energy regulator who has won accolades from all sides through contentious processes. 

Our new daily infographic from adventurer-scientist Tony Morley appears in social media with the hashtag #ResourceProgress.

Global demand for crude oil and natural gas is not credibly forecast to diminish over most of this century, but there is increasing pressure to change our energy systems. Some leading-edge thinkers examine the thorny issues that result.

A court challenge paid for by British Columbia taxpayers claims that building safe energy infrastructure is not in the national interest. Could this be true?

 Winnipeg conference aims to shape Canada’s long-term energy future.

"We continue to drag our feet about pipelines, we manage to discourage liquefied natural gas investments in BC..."

A fascinating new study from the Business Council of British Columbia reveals high level of mutual dependency between the neighbours.

Resource commodities are nearly 80% of British Columbia's exports today and continue to underpin hundreds of thousands of jobs. Wrong moves on carbon pricing can hurt those workers while doing nothing for climate. 

A trio of city policies amounts to a de facto ban on natural gas in pursuit of a "100% renewable energy" target. Moreover, the ban is based on insufficient renewable natural gas and could blunt more effective work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

One of the most important skill sets for current times is the ability to work with people we don't necessary agree with or even trust. Finally there is a way to acquire this ability.

While a small number of protesters get themselves on the news with emotionally charged displays, it turns out most British Columbia residents are practical green futurists who support new energy projects done right.

Resource families are among the hardest hit by British Columbia's summer of wildfires. As we leave the summer season, they're going to need all the help they can get. Please join us supporting the Thanksgiving Food Drive, an annual event that takes place each September

In June 2018, Vancouver will be the site of a major international conference exploring themes of interest to the Resource Works community. 

How can we collaborate to protect workers and grow the economy? A roundtable conversation with Canada's environment minister is a reminder that complex regulatory systems are not simple to manage. 

Recent events prove that when resource investment is driven away from Canada, governments will have no choice but to raise taxes to get the funds they need. 

​We're often asked how natural gas, which occurs in great abundance in western Canada, can be extracted with minimal impact on land and water. This animation shows the steps involved.

Greener and more efficient use of our precious natural resources can only come from harnessing technology. In the Naturally Resourceful series, Resource Works writer Don Hauka looks at the British Columbia companies that are on the leading edge of this transformation. Sixth in the series.

What country wouldn't want to retain, and keep improving, a trillion dollar industry? (If it was lucky enough to have one, that is.) Stewart Muir looks at some surprising data.

Attracting job-creating investments to British Columbia requires putting out a welcome mat. It should come as no surprise when hostile messages are taken at face value, and investors head for the hills.

Trusted and efficient carbon pricing is fundamental if we expect industry to maintain committed to jobs in Canada. There are some worrying signs this is at risk. 

The problem is not coming – it's already here. Writer David Jordan took an in-depth look at how British Columbia researchers have been tackling threats to forest health.

Escalating devastation in the British Columbia Interior is creating widespread hardship. Through this testing time, we should also be thinking about future-proofing the province's people and resources, since the problems aren't going away.

A vigorous effort to erode confidence in Canada's LNG industry has it all wrong. In fact, natural gas is in hot demand worldwide in the crusade against climate change.

Wildfires across the British Columbia Interior are a reminder that the things we take for granted can be snatched away with hardly a moment's notice. 

Stewart Muir looks at how it is that British Columbia remains so strongly identified with natural resources. 

It's a time to remember the things that bind us together. 

It's time to explode the carefully nurtured myth that British Columbia residents are opposed to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion and Site C. That just ain't so, according to a new poll from the Angus Reid Institute.

Can British Columbia prosperity be saved from a slate of policies designed specifically to drive natural resource investment out of the province? As investors' hands tighten around their wallets, one thing is clear: the work of our movement has scarcely begun.

The BC NDP has promised to review natural gas fracking and what it calls subsidies, while the BC Greens campaigned to ban the use of any kind of fossil fuels. Davie Higgins looks at why some residents of BC's north east region, including Tyler Kosick, are concerned.

In British Columbia, resource exports have been a stable part of the economy for the past two decades. Last year, they increased. 

Canada's Aboriginal people consistently speak of their quest for a successful future. Now there is fresh evidence to show that they are twice as likely as non-Aboriginals to find that future through work in natural resource fields.

Next time you hear someone claim we can do without the B.C. pipeline expansion, don't be swayed. Without crude oil exports, Canada simply cannot pay the rent.