According to BC Business, Fort St. John is fueling growth in northern BC, “Work is plentiful in several sectors. In 2019, $8.9 billion in energy exports were produced in the northeast. The Peace River Region is home to 20,000 drilled wells, including some in North America’s largest gas fields. Ninety percent of BC’s grain production occurs there, along with 38% of BC’s hydroelectric power. Every year, Peace River Region sees 300,000 tourists.

But it’s not just all work and no play…” Read the full article

The city of Fort St. John is bracing for growth and plans to invest $63.2 million in capital spending in 2020. Those funds are ear-marked for roads, facilities, City initiatives, water and sewer and new equipment like fire engines.
A full breakdown of the budget is available on scribd.

Or you can read this synopsis on Alaska Highway News.

The BC Oil and Gas Commission has given approval for a new liquified natural gas facility in Fort Nelson.

“This is a very positive economic opportunity for the Fort Nelson First Nation and the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality,” said GasNorth President Bob Fedderly. “This will help position Fort Nelson as an energy supplier to the North, making use of local resources to create local jobs.”

Construction on the estimated $50-million development is expected to start this spring. Up to 50 jobs would be created during construction, and around half a dozen when the facility is operational.

Read full article.

According to MoneySense, Fort St. John is the best place to live in BC and the territories – and 15th best city in Canada.

“Fort St. John accomplishes the difficult balance of offering both a strong economy and affordability, ranking in the top 25 per cent of all cities in affordability and low taxes.

Fort St. John has an average household income of $124,000 and an unemployment rate in March 2018 of 5.7 per cent, thanks to its oil, natural gas, forestry and agriculture industries. It takes just 3.1 years of the average resident’s household income to purchase the average primary residence in Fort St. John, valued at $386,000.”

Read the full article.

Photo: Courtesy of MoneySense

According to the Alaska Highway News, Black Diamond Group is the latest oilfield service company to announce success in a flurry of contract awards for the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, which will service the LNG Canada project.

The company announced Monday it has secured a conditional $42.5 million contract for remote workforce accommodations for Coastal GasLink.

Read the full article: http://www.alaskahighwaynews.ca/business/all-camp-contracts-now-in-place-for-lng-canada-pipeline-1.23371704

Combine the end of a market glut of LNG with the approaching BC Government November 30 deadline to claim as much as $6 billion in tax breaks for the Kitimat LNG project and what do you get? A flurry of activity in Kitimat around the CA $40 billion LNG terminal.

According to Bloomberg, “The action is unmistakable in Kitimat, British Columbia, the Pacific coast city hugging a deep inlet that would be the closest launch point on the continent for LNG cargoes to Asia. The lights are on, shades open and SUVs parked outside a 49-unit apartment complex built to house Shell executives, which sat mostly darkened for the last two years. Local workers have left jobs at a Rio Tinto Plc smelter nearby to join contractors ramping up for the LNG project. Landlords are raising rents and houses are selling twice as fast as they used to in anticipation of a flood of workers coming to town.

“I would put money on it — it’s going ahead,” says Phil Germuth, mayor of Kitimat, who recently hosted a banker from Barclays Bank Plc visiting from the U.K. to examine the project. Germuth also met a group of officials reporting to the board of Mitsubishi Corp., one of the project’s five partners, who visited the site in May.”

Read the full article:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-09/canada-s-30-billion-lng-hope-edges-closer-as-shell-ramps-up