Natural Resources Committee on April 8th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Please Mr. Turner, in answering it, connect it with the cross-country benefits of the oil and gas sector for the Canadian economy.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you.

[Peter Turner]

Well, as I mentioned, the all-party committee that's looking into the process of hydraulic fracturing has done fairly wide consulting across the Yukon and also within the industry in Alberta and British Columbia. I am sure that they would welcome every input of information that would allow them to make the best possible recommendation for all the citizens of the Yukon.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

You still have a minute, Ms. Duncan, if you like.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'll pass.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Maybe someone else would like to take it?

Okay. Mr. Regan has indicated that he wants to question Grand Chief John. We will hold off until Chief John arrives, if he arrives.

In the meantime, we'll go to the next questioner, please.

Mr. Leef, you have up to five minutes.

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to all of our witnesses. All of you on the west coast got up very early in the morning to be here, so we appreciate that.

My question will be for Mr. Turner in the Yukon.

Mr. Turner, I'm curious to hear if the Yukon chamber has undertaken any studies to assess the number of Yukoners who might be outside of our territory, in the proverbial south. Of course, we call everything outside of the Yukon “the south”. I'm just wondering if the chamber has an indication in numbers of Yukoners who are currently employed in the oil and gas industry in the south and who come and go from our territory on a regular basis to find work.

[Peter Turner]

I wouldn't have any hard numbers for you, Mr. Leef, but anecdotally, particularly if you look amongst the younger demographics—i.e., high school graduates and folks in their twenties—we see a lot of back-and-forth transfers, particularly down to Alberta to go and work in the oil patch. That's contributory to our economy up here as well, because some people have families up here and they're going to work down there.

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

Right, and sometimes there's both a blessing and a curse to that.

As you indicated, we would get indirect benefits or induced benefits from Yukoners who find employment in the oil and gas sector in southern parts of Canada and then bring those benefits back to the territory. The challenge, I guess, as it were, would be that we also see some of those skills.... Skills Yukon is a great example. We have tremendous talent. People develop these skills in the Yukon, in the north, and then they go down to the south. The one thing we heard on committee was that one of the real benefits of the oil and gas sector was that it was doing skills development and those skills are highly transferable to other careers and other jobs outside of the oil and gas sector. The employees are able to transfer their talents to a plethora of other fields, so that's a tremendous benefit.

The challenge for us, then, would be that we see these young people who develop those skills moving away and deploying those skills in other parts of Canada, but then we're not able to transfer them into other fields in the Yukon. Are there any assessments in the Yukon.... I guess maybe the ultimate question would be, how would we maximize those benefits? Or what would that mean to us if those skills were able to come home in a developed oil and gas sector in the Yukon?

[Peter Turner]

I think that would be a really exciting opportunity. Particularly, I think there would be a disproportionately positive impact on our first nations populations, because I've encountered a reluctance on the part of many first nations...[Technical Difficulty—Editor]

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

I'm sorry, Mr. Turner. You've cut out again. This is a bit frustrating for you, too, I'm sure.

Go ahead and continue your answer. There are about 30 seconds that we didn't hear.

[Peter Turner]

What I was saying was that, in my impression, if there were an active oil and gas sector here in the Yukon providing opportunities for employment, I believe that the first nations populations would benefit disproportionately from it, in that, from my previous life in working with first nations, I know that many in those communities are reluctant to leave their communities or to leave the Yukon to look for employment. I think that if we had a local oil and gas industry it would do tremendous things to literally and figuratively enrich first nations communities in terms of employment opportunities and being able to work close to their homes and their families and communities.

[Ryan Leef, Conservative, Yukon, YT]

We've seen through the extraction resource sector in the Yukon—as you mentioned in your presentation, that's been the focus of the Yukon—the growth of things like the Centre for Northern Innovation in Mining at Yukon College and the mine training simulators, for an enhanced level of training that's highly mobile, to address some of those needs to get it outside of Whitehorse even, and into the communities.

Skills Yukon is a great example of development of our talent, with first nations employment and training opportunities and education in those communities. We've seen companies like Quantum Machine Works do exceptionally well.

Would you anticipate that we would realize those same benefits from oil and gas as we have with the extractive sector?

[Peter Turner]

Absolutely. I think that would be a tremendous additional leg, essentially, for our economy, which right now is basically balanced between tourism and hardrock mining. If we had another leg that contributed to the economy, that would make us a more diversified environment and economy and provide all sorts of opportunities, from education to training to employment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Mr. Leef.

Our next three questioners are Mr. Zimmer; in the NDP spot, Ms. Charlton or Ms. Duncan; and then Ms. Crockatt.

Mr. Regan, if at any time you want to come in with your seven-minute round, just let me know. We'll see if the grand chief does arrive.

Go ahead, please, Mr. Zimmer, for up to five minutes.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

I'll say a special thanks for the generosity of this committee, which wants to give me some more time. I appreciate that.

I know, Art, you're there, but I wouldn't mind your answering just one little question for me. It's real simple: how many employees do you have, and how big are Gas Link and FloRite in terms of your operations?

That is just to Art and Dave.

[Dave Turchanski]

As far as employees are concerned, Bob, I'm running at about 125 to 150 employees right now up in this area. We're doing facility construction, pressure sites, plant sites, multi-well pads, modular construction.

[Art Jarvis, Executive Director, Energy Services BC]

My company has 10 employees in the winter. This cycles, because in the summer, of course, there is still less activity. We certainly are focused directly on natural gas, because that's the only thing we do with our equipment. Sometimes in the summer we're down to two employees.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Okay.

Bill, what do you have for employees currently? I guess you have a few holdings, but what do you have as your larger footprint in terms of your companies?

[Bill Streeper]

Right now for direct employees we're running approximately 26. These are year-round employees.

I'd like to step back a minute, Bob. Earlier you asked me a question about royalties, and I think I told you $90 million. That should be $90 billion: I was off a few dollars. When you're talking about oil exploration, we are looking at quite a few dollars here.

Basically we have a town here of 6,800 people. If I look at that and the employment here, our employment in this town is 100% oil- and gas-related. If you're not working in the oil and gas industry, you're working in an industry that supports the oil and gas people in terms of services, retail, and groceries. Right now our money is 100% oil and gas.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Thanks, Bill.

I spoke with Greg Ebel, the CEO of Spectra Energy, and this is a figure that is used by a lot of the big proponents. In terms of supply, some people think this is a little “blurb” of five or ten years, but he's saying 200 years of supplies of natural gas. And that's of the plays in B.C. that we know about; there are more plays being found as we speak.

Dave and then Bill, I'd like you both to speak—as concisely as possible, because I have only about two minutes left—about the larger benefit to the development of LNG, because one other thing that I think the opposition fails to notice when they protest projects is that these are at risk. They're not a given yet. But the potential benefit to B.C. and Canada is absolutely massive.

Dave, go ahead, please, and then Bill.

[Dave Turchanski]

I think a big part of it, as far as Petronas and Progress is concerned, Bob...and I know just on the outskirts of the Spectra stuff.

But in terms of the proven reserves there and whatnot, with Petronas, Progress, Spectra, and stuff going forward to fill these lines to B.C. at the date...they're looking at long-term goals of 40 years, 50 years, and, like you say, 200 years. The potential here is unbelievable in terms of what there is here in this part of the province.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Thanks.

Over to you, Bill.