The government of British Columbia has extended more than $1 billion in the form of tax credits to largely foreign-owned oil and gas companies fracking vast expanses of northern B.C. over the last five years.
According to the B.C. auditor general’s 2014 summary financial statements report, the province delivered $587 million in incentives to the fracking industry alone last year and $412 million in 2013. The payments were all deducted from royalties.
Shale gas producers such as the Malaysian-owned Progress Energy or Houston-based Apache now pay the province a modest fee or royalty for the right to mine B.C.’s northern gas fields, which are owned by the citizens and First Nations of British Columbia.
Photo: Creative Commons, Simon Fraser Universtiy – University Commications licensed under CC BY 2.0.