Yesterday during budget estimates for the Ministry of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources I asked the Minister a couple of questions concerning very recent changes to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Act. These new changes preclude detailed information about royalty revenues being publicly disclosed, and grant the Oil and Gas commission increased regulatory power.

This line of questioning followed the good news that Shirley Bond (MLA Prince George-Valemont) and I received about the proposed Borealis geothermal project near Valemont, BC. The Oil and Gas Commission recently approved their drilling permits and, to quote the Minister:

“The good news is that the ministry is already working with Borealis in terms of helping them navigate all the different funding opportunities, particularly from the federal government as well. “

Below I reproduce the video and text of the exchange.

Video of Exchange

Text of Exchange

A. Weaver: I would like follow the comments of the member for Prince George–Valemount and echo her thanks to the minister for this good news about Borealis. I, too, am thrilled with the news, and it’s great to see B.C. champion this demonstration project. It’s good for B.C. It’s good for Valemount. It’s good for all of us in this room, and I think it’s a great step forward.

I have a number of questions. I’ve given most of them to the minister in advance, because they were rather lengthy, and I thought rather than scrambling on the floor, I could give them time to prepare.

I have two that I wanted to ask first that I had not…. They just came to my attention very recently. They came to my attention when a member of the general public sought information that used to be available through a freedom of information request, and that was recently changed in the statutory miscellaneous stats law that was passed under this government.

Under section 122.1 of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Act now, information about royalty revenues must not be disclosed. It essentially means that British Columbians are denied the right to know about royalty payments on a resource that belongs to the citizens of this province. This is a very new addition.

My question to the minister: is she comfortable with this, given the stark contrast to the forest industry, in which the volume of timber harvested by specific companies is publicly available information? What is the justification for this level of secrecy around a publicly owned resource, exclusively for natural gas. Now you nor I, our friends here — nobody — can know which company gets how much natural gas out of the ground. Very unusual given that it only applies to the natural gas sector.

Hon. M. Mungall: The overall amount of royalties that are paid by the industry is aggregated and then made public through Public Accounts, but I believe the member opposite was talking about the specific amount of royalties per company and that not being shared.

My understanding is that this is very similar, actually, with mining in that Ministry of Finance has determined that a best practice is to treat royalties, in terms of their privacy, the same way as you would treat individual income tax. We want to protect that privacy information for industry in the same way that we would protect privacy information for individuals.

What that means is that we would know the information for the industry as a whole but not for individual companies.

A. Weaver: Is it then publicly available — the amount of a resource that is being extracted by a particular company? As of a few months ago, if a FOI was put forward, a member of the public could find out how much natural gas — a British Columbian owned resource — was extracted by a British Columbian natural gas company. Now they would be told that they’re subject to the section 122 and that information is not available. Is that correct?

Hon. M. Mungall: If the individual that the member has been speaking to is concerned about the actual volumes of gas tied to any well at all in British Columbia and wants to know how much volume of gas is being extracted for that one well, or for a group of wells or so on, that information is actually publicly available on the OGC, the Oil and Gas Commission’s, website. That is readily available. They don’t have to file an FOI, but it’s that financial component that has been now retained as private information.

A. Weaver: Thanks to the minister for the answer.

My second question in this area is: the board of the Oil and Gas Commission has the power to make regulations under the Oil and Gas Activities Act, and it has, in fact, exercised this power to make regulations related to consultation and notification requirements, geophysical activities, drilling and production activities, pipeline and liquefied natural gas facilities, and fees and levies and securities.

My question is this. Does the minister feel that it’s appropriate for a body, which is both a promoter and a regulator of the oil and gas industry, to have the ability to create regulations without cabinet or legislative approval?

Hon. M. Mungall: The member’s question, specifically, was if we, as a government, see it as permissible for an entity to be both regulator and promoter of an industry.

The answer to that is that the OGC is a regulator, full stop. That is very clearly laid out in section 4 of the act that governs the Oil and Gas Commission. If the member likes, I can read it out as a whole. But important to note is looking at….

The Chair: I’ll have to interject. The standing orders do not permit the use of a device.

Hon. M. Mungall: I’m sorry, Chair. My understanding is there was a ruling made in the last parliament that actually allowed members to read from an electronic device.

Interjection.

Hon. M. Mungall: Yeah, not during question period, but otherwise, at other times, I’ve seen members do that. But maybe the member doesn’t need me to read it.

The Chair: Pardon me, Minister. We’ll consult with the Clerk in the meantime.

Hon. M. Mungall: I’ll leave my answer at that, though. The member is able to use the Internet, so I’m sure he will.