Some years ago, the BC government would dispose of Crown reserves of petroleum and natural gas (PNG) rights through monthly tenders. Successful bidders acquired exclusive rights to explore for or produce specified Crown PNG resources. Bonus bids from these sales once added billions of dollars to the public purse.

The fossil fuel industry lobbied hard to minimize rights payments and found Christy Clark a generous ally. Writing in The Tyee, Andrew Nikiforuk told the story of Encana empire builder Gwyn Morgan. (The company eventually restructured and its successor corporations are Cenovus and Ovintiv.)

Christy Clark appointed Encana’s fossil fuel titan Morgan to her transition team when she began presiding over the Premier’s office in 2011. Perhaps by coincidence, public revenue from PNG rights began to disappear.

NDP leader John Horgan was an even better friend to fossil fuel producers than Clark. In his last 30 months as Premier, Horgan’s government held only four rights auctions. In his first two years as head of BC’s government, David Eby held zero rights sales.

However, offerings of PNG rights resumed in December 2024, although the parcels affected are tiny, as are the revenues.

The BC NDP remains committed to expanding fossil fuel production. In BC, the industry paid millions of dollars to lobbyists and politicians. The rate of return on that investment was just a touch more than most of us get when we deposit a few dollars in a chartered bank or credit union.