Rigs on a drilling pad in the Montney region. Article content British Columbia and Blueberry River First Nations agreed on a plan that will clear the way for oil and gas development in the lucrative Montney shale play in northeast B.C. and northwest Alberta, albeit with strict conditions that will limit disruption of Blueberry River’s territory. Article content “There’s no longer business as usual,” Chief Judy Desjarlais said at a press conference on Jan. 18. Article content But business is now at least possible for the first time since the B.C. Supreme Court ordered a freeze on new oil and gas development nearly 19 months ago, ruling that decades of development on Blueberry River’s 3.8 million hectares in northern B.C. had violated its Treaty 8 rights. The temporary moratorium on new activity significantly slowed energy development in the province last year even as natural gas prices soared, with only 319 gas well licenses being issued in B.C. since the court’s decision, compared to 552 in the same period the previous year, according to data from the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission. Industry welcomed the news, even though the tougher conditions call for halving the rate at which land is […]
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