VANCOUVER | TRADITIONAL, UNCEDED TERRITORIES OF THE xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH) AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) FIRST NATIONS — Today, the David Suzuki Foundation’s senior climate policy adviser Tom Green released this statement, in response to B.C.’s new oil and gas royalty system:
“We’re glad that the deep well royalty credit—a massive fossil fuel subsidy to the fracking industry—will be phased out over the next four years and that the minimum royalty rate is increasing to 5 per cent. Yet important opportunities needed for a managed wind-down of the highly polluting liquefied natural gas sector are missing. These changes do not incorporate a climate damages fee, which we advocated for. The government also chose an industry-favoured approach that aligns with Alberta rather than a flat-rate approach favoured in public responses and by environmental organizations. The changes also miss the opportunity to provide a mechanism to share resource revenues with Indigenous nations who suffer the impacts of fracking and water pollution, but get little of the revenue from resources extracted in their territories. At a time when rolling back fossil fuel production to meet climate objectives should be top of mind, the revised system continues to favour gas extraction and exports in B.C.”
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For more information or a media interview, please contact:
Tom Green, David Suzuki Foundation, tgreen@davidsuzuki.org