Minister of the Environment, Hon. Terry Lake, has announced a three-year air monitoring and community engagement program that will focus on northeastern BC. The program aims to address concerns from residents regarding air quality issues due to the expanding oil and gas industry in the area.

The focus of the program during the first year will be on: 

• Monitoring two priority rural locations in the South Peace,
• Funding a coordinator responsible for establishing a locally-based air monitoring working group, and
• Making the air quality data easily accessible to the public. 

BC Premier Christy Clark, along with other provincial premiers, has written to the Federal Government in Ottawa in an effort to obtain federal compensation for any increase in drug costs that may come as a result of a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU).

The federal government is in the final stages of negotiations with the EU, whose demands include an extension of brand-name patents for up to five years in order to compensate companies for time spent awaiting approvals. The EU is also requesting an extension of the time that a brand-name company's drug composition would remain proprietary from competitors interested in making copies.

Premier Clark has stated that she believes this move would result in longer patent protection for brand-name pharmaceuticals, leading to increased costs for provincial drug plans, employer plans and individuals. This comes at a time when the Province has recently announced initiatives that aim to reduce the cost of pharmaceutical drugs.

The federal government has yet to make a final decision on this aspect of the negotiations but talks are expected to be finalized this calendar year.

Shell Canada Ltd. has chosen TransCanada Corp. to build, own and operate a $4-billion natural gas pipeline that will run from the Montney region in BC to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility based outside Kitimat, BC.

The Coastal GasLink pipeline is anticipated to run 700 kilometres with an estimated initial capacity of 1.7 billion cubic feet per day. It is also anticipated that the pipeline will create an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 construction jobs over the next 2-3 years.

Royal Dutch Shell jointly owns the LNG export facility alongside partners including Korean Gas Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., and PetroChina Company Ltd.

This weekly report produced for the BC Chamber of Commerce by Fleishman-Hillard.  While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information included in this publication as of the date of issue, events and government policies are subject to frequent change.  Therefore, the BC Chamber of Commerce and Fleishman-Hillard cannot assume any responsibility for actions taken solely or principally on the basis on the information contained herein.