Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let me say right from the get-go, I appreciate the opportunity to present by video conference. It is probably a lot nicer in Ottawa: I think it was minus 28 degrees this morning in Calgary. As mentioned, I'm Richard Dunn, vice-president of government and r

Natural Resources committee  I believe it was our partners, Apache. They made that claim a while back, yes.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, it's a fifty-fifty joint venture to develop properties up in the Horn River Basin, north of Fort Nelson.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, we're doing it now.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, absolutely, I agree with your comments on increasing public confidence and full disclosure. As well, I note that the recently developed regulations in British Columbia—the Oil and Gas Activities Act just implemented within the last few months—in fact require this disclosure

Natural Resources committee  No, the wells at this point are looked at on an individual well or pad basis together. Where the cumulative effects assessments are done, for example, up in the Horn River, is in the land use planning exercises. So rather than an individual permit, you'd look at bearing the accou

Natural Resources committee  That's a very fair comment. I'd take back one point, sir, that I'd initially think about, and that is the need for competitiveness to keep the industry viable. It would not make sense to do a cumulative effects assessment. It would be efficient to do it on a well-by-well basis,

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. I appreciate the question. With regard to the details on the tax, in the United States the developers are given an immediate writeoff of their expenses against their taxes--

Natural Resources committee  That's correct. It's effectively a capital cost allowance. They're enabled with a 100% writeoff in the first year against taxable income. In Canada, historically, for development expenses, it's been a 30% declining balance, so it can take somewhere between five to seven years to

Natural Resources committee  That's an excellent question. With the emergence of shale gas in the last few years, the price of natural gas has dropped by approximately 50% to 60%. When we embarked on work in the Horn River Basin, for example, gas would have been valued at somewhere between $7 and $8 per 1,00

Environment committee  Thank you. Good morning. I'm Richard Dunn, the vice-president of government relations for Encana. Encana is a leading North American energy producer, with Canadian unconventional natural gas operations in northeast B.C. and Alberta. At Encana we take our responsibility as a

Environment committee  I appreciate the question. You bring up a good point in terms of doing the work responsibly. My opinion is that, yes, both resources can be developed in a responsible manner. Again, there are effective regulations that we operate under that ensure that the work is done responsi

Environment committee  Yes, we're used to regulations that address where water is used and the amount. For example, in British Columbia the Ministry of Environment, in their environmental assessment office, has thresholds of water extraction projects that are subject to environmental assessments. For

Environment committee  Definitely looking for alternatives is one of the strategies, but certainly there's also reuse and recycling, utilizing it in other areas to minimize the amount of fresh water we use. Shell, for example, has a very innovative project where they utilize waste water from the city