Natural Resources Committee on May 29th, 2018

[Alison Thompson]

There's a lot of active interest in Saskatchewan, northern B.C., and all across Alberta. The regulator has not caught up with the interest in using old infrastructure. By that I mean the Alberta Energy Regulator or the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission. Those things are going to be outside of this committee's purview, but at the same time that sharing of data may relieve some of the anxiety that some of the regulators have if they saw the measured data. The sharing of data I think is key. There are a lot of people who don't yet believe it could work until they see something working.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Getting back to what Ross Beaty found, or from what I understand from your presentation, if you have more data on possible reservoirs of heat or whatever in Canada, would that de-risk the situation enough for projects to really move forward? You have a separate de-risking ask in your list. I'm wondering what more the government needs to do before investors like Ross could move head and do this.

[Alison Thompson]

We tried to lay out two alternatives. Either the Geological Survey could drill the wells themselves or you could have investments into consortium-style companies that drill the wells but then share the data. Either way, Canada and other prospectors get to use the data. There just need to be more projects. We have geothermal resources right across Canada, especially in western and northern Canada, and the idea that we could have many firsts—the first one in B.C., Alberta, or Saskatchewan—would allow step-out projects that would come from that.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

My understanding is that there's another project of some geothermal sort happening in Lakelse Lake, near Terrace.

[Alison Thompson]

That's right.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Do you know what the status of that is?

[Alison Thompson]

I do. That's also a Borealis project that has partnered with the Kitselas First Nation. There are two or three permitted projects in British Columbia. Again, the regulatory provincial body has granted permits. None of those projects exists in Alberta right now, which is unfortunate, but we're hoping the Alberta government will start to permit projects. There's one permitted project in Fort Liard, Northwest Territories. There's also a project that has been permitted in Saskatchewan. There are just a handful of provincially or territorially permitted projects. It doesn't mean the opportunity set isn't larger, but the regulatory side at the provincial level needs to catch up.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

That's unfortunately all the time we have. Thank you for your patience in hanging in there with us, and thank you very much for your presentation.

Mr. Schmale, thank you again for accommodating the witnesses.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

No worries.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

We'll see everybody on Thursday.

The meeting is adjourned.