OUR MERCANTILIST MARINE 

Rising costs drain contingency fund for Canada's new fisheries science ships

SHIP BUILDING IN CANADA IS A MUGS GAME FOR THE SELECT FEW ALWAYS INCLUDE COST OVERRUNS, LOWBALL BIDING, AND THREE MAIN SHIPBUILDERS, IRVINGS IN NB, MONTREAL AND VANCOUVER

CBCJanuary 6, 2020

Escalating costs at the Seaspan Shipyard in Vancouver in 2019 depleted the multi-million dollar contingency fund set aside as part of the budget to build three offshore fisheries science vessels under Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy.

The Canadian Coast Guard Ship John Franklin and CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier were delivered in 2019, and a third ship is expected this year.

The 63-metre vessels are the first large civilian ships produced under the federal shipbuilding program. They will be used to monitor fish stocks and ecosystems.

The $687-million budget included an escalation contingency fund. The amount was not disclosed.

The full amount was redacted in a federal document authorizing the final dip into the fund. It was released to CBC News under access to information legislation.

Millions already spent by last May

According to a memorandum prepared for Jonathan Wilkinson, the former minister of fisheries and oceans, the project had already used $19 million in contingency funds by May 2019.

But more was needed, the memo said, to cover "escalating project costs such as labour rates and owner's changes, as well as other unexpected increases to project costs including transition into service costs."

"Access to the remainder of the contingency funding [redacted] is now required," the two-page memo said.

Christer Waara/CBC

A decision was needed by July 5, 2019, the note said, "in order to adjust the Shipbuilding Contract with Vancouver Shipyards in a timely fashion and further advance the project in a seamless manner."

Wilkinson signed off on the request.

A small percentage of overall budget

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans would not disclose the amount, but said Wilkinson was not asked to approve new funding.

"The overall contingency fund is a small percentage of the overall budget of $687 million, and is a pre-planned funding amount to cover potential increases to labour rates at the shipyard, economic price and foreign exchange adjustments, and any necessary changes to operational requirements that surface over the 5-year project implementation phase," DFO spokesperson Benoit Mayrand said in a statement to CBC News.

"The total value of available contingency funding cannot be released, as its use will be subject to negotiations with the shipyard," he said.

In an emailed statement, Seaspan spokesperson Amy MacLeod said "requests for contingency funding is a normal, ongoing part of the contracting process on large projects such as the [National Shipbuilding Strategy]."

What we know about the funding deal

When the agreement in principle with Seaspan was announced in 2015, the total project budget was set at $687 million.

Federal officials said at the time the total included $59 million for project management, work up to that date and contingencies, $51 million for engineering costs, and the remainder for construction, contingencies, insurance, warranty, spares and training material.

Seaspan committed to deliver three offshore fisheries science vessels at a total ceiling price of $514 million.

The ceiling included fees and an allowance for contingencies "that may or may not be required to address the risks associated with building a new class of ships in what is essentially a brand new shipyard."

Incentives established to keep costs under budget

The agreement set out three cost bands and established incentives to the yard if the final cost came in below target.

If the final cost came in under a $400-million target, Canada would pay Seaspan a fee and the government and yard would share the savings between the actual and target costs.

Delivery of the first vessel was scheduled for spring 2017, the second vessel five months later and the third three months later.

The delivery date in every case was missed.

Seaspan

Microscopic cracks in the welding were discovered on all three vessels in 2018. The faults were found after two of the ships had passed initial inspections.

The defects were traced to a semi-automated welding system installed as part of the shipyard's multi-million dollar upgrade, CBC reported. The yard bore the cost of repairing the defective welds.

The original budget for the ships of $244 million was developed in 2004.

During the 2015 briefing, federal officials said the first forecast was unrealistic because it did not adequately provide for inflation, management, engineering and design costs and did not properly include contingencies.

Arbitrator upholds decision to fire Calgary Transit bus driver who allegedly sexually harassed colleague

CBCJanuary 5, 2020

An arbitrator has upheld the City of Calgary's decision to fire a Calgary Transit bus driver who allegedly sexually harassed his colleague, after the union grieved the man's dismissal.

The bus driver had been employed with Transit for four-and-a-half years at the time of his dismissal, which happened two months after the incident.

Local 583 Amalgamated Transit Union argued the driver was terminated without just cause, saying the interaction was a "friendly, joking exchange" — but James Casey dismissed that grievance and upheld the termination in a ruling issued Dec. 16.

A female co-worker who presents in a friendly and joking manner does not by doing so imply that her bare legs can be stroked as you wish. - James Casey, arbitrator

Casey wrote that the bus driver and his female colleague only knew each other in passing when on July 11, 2018, the bus driver grabbed his colleague's hand and held it as they were walking toward their respective buses to drive their routes.

The female driver "said she felt extremely uncomfortable and had to shake his hand off" but the male driver said they were having a "friendly conversation."

The next day, the female driver was sitting in the driver's seat of her bus, which was parked at the transit depot before she began her route for the day.

She was wearing shorts as part of her uniform.

The other driver approached her window to chat and noticed she was wearing shorts. 

He said "Wow, legs!" and reached into the window and started stroking her bare leg. She tried to cover her leg and joked about not having shaved that day, and he repeated the action. She tried to cover her leg again, and again he rubbed her leg.

A few minutes later, after walking away, he returned to the window and began touching her leg again. He then pointed to her groin and asked twice "are you shaving down there, too?" 

Colleague was shaken, ultimately resigned

The female driver was shaken by the incident — reporting it to her supervisor, then later going on medical leave and ultimately resigning. She had worked with Calgary Transit for eight years.

Casey said video footage confirms the female driver's testimony of the events.

"A female co-worker who presents in a friendly and joking manner does not by doing so imply that her bare legs can be stroked as you wish," he wrote. "These are coarse, extremely intimate, and sexually charged questions … all the elements of sexual harassment are present."

Casey said the male driver minimized his misconduct by not admitting to the entirety of what he did.

"I also have concerns about whether [the male driver] truly has insight into his actions," Casey wrote. 

Not only did the misconduct have a significant negative impact on the female driver, Casey wrote, it was important to consider other employees' wellbeing.

"The interests of all employees in being able to work in a workplace free of sexual harassment needs to be taken into account," he wrote.

Made from this land: Keeping ancient Wabanaki knowledge alive through art

CBCJanuary 6, 2020

I am a Wolastoqi journalist from Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) in northwestern New Brunswick. My nation's traditional unceded territory stretches all along the Wolastoq, commonly known as the St. John River, from Quebec down to the Bay of Fundy."Made from this land" is a series that explores different arts and crafts of Wabanaki people across the Maritimes. Many of the skills have been passed down from generation to generation. 

Desmond Simon/Submitted

The Wabanaki Confederacy, or People of the Dawnland, is made up of five distinct Indigenous nations: Abenaki, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Peskotomuhkati (Passamaquoddy) and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet). These nations territories span Nova Scotia, P.E.I, New Brunswick, parts of Quebec and New England in the United States. 

With every conversation I had there was a common thread of reconnection, reconnection to language and traditional knowledge and preserving them for future generations.

For these artists, creating things as their ancestors did gives their work passion. Working with materials that could be gathered from their traditional homelands — ash, birch, butternut, porcupine quills, deer and moose hides — gave them a connection to the land their ancestors left for them.

Ned Bear, Justin Sappier

The late Ned Bear of Sitansisk (St. Mary's First Nation in New Brunswick), a woodworker who carved masks named for spirit guides, inspired new generations of mask carvers in the Wolastoqiyik Nation, including Justin Sappier of Neqotkuk.

Gabriel Frey, Shane Perley-Dutcher

Gabriel Frey of Motahkomikuk (Indian Township, Maine) learned to make utility baskets from his grandfather but had to reimagine what utility is today. Shane Perley-Dutcher of Neqotkuk learned to make baskets from a Wolastoqi elder who later would be an inspiration for the use of non-traditional material for baskets. 

Melissa Peter-Paul

Melissa Peter-Paul of Abegweit First Nation in P.E.I., who makes art with porcupine quills, travels the roads of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia just to find the materials her great-great grandmother used for quill art.

Brian Knockwood

Brian Knockwood of Sipekne'katik (Indian Brook First Nation in Nova Scotia) of the Eastern Eagle Singers grew up in the shadow of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, disconnected from his heritage, but now teaches people how to make their own drums.

My hope is that sharing these stories can be a bridge to some understanding of Indigenous cultures. Art is critical to the continuance of culture. Respectful representation of these distinct nations is equally as important. These art forms all hold within them traditional knowledge of the very land from which they came. 

Nit leyic — may that be the truth.

Smiley faces Haida style: totem carver rolls out emojis for the digital age

CBCJanuary 5, 2020

A renowned carver of monumental B.C. totem poles has turned his hand to the creation of tiny Haida emojis for the digital age.

Jaalen Edenshaw's traditional art, which includes masks, canoes, and red cedar totem poles 13 metres high, is on display in galleries around the world.

Now, his Haida emojis are available on the Apple app store, free to all.

"This felt good, to be able to bring some of our our traditional culture... through the digital culture," said Edenshaw, who said he scribbled his initial designs on a napkin before handing them off for digitization. 

With millions of emojis in use, the icons are like a compressed shorthand for feelings and feedback on social media, texts and emails. Some experts say they're transforming communication, and even replacing words through expressive faces and signs.

In recent years, emojis have evolved to better reflect ethnic and cultural diversity. Last year, Australia rolled out Indigenous emojis for the first time, created by Indigenous youth in that country.

Contributed/Jaalen Edenshaw

Edenshaw admits he'd never used an emoji in his life. But he watched his children send standard emojis to family members and was inspired.

Inspired by 'ancient' art 

Now, his son's favourite emoji is a Haida word bubble, or juup,  which is the equivalent to a "poke" on social media. 

In addition to the emoji word bubbles, Edenshaw's new Haida sets include standard bright yellow faces typical of emoji expressions, only with "Haida eyes," he said.

Other expressive Haida emoji faces look like traditional masks.

The emojis also feature Haida words; Siijuu, meaning slick or cool, and K'w, which is an expression of displeasure.

Christian Amundson/CBC

Edenshaw said some of his miniature icons draw on pre-existing Haida weaving and art. "I thought I'd seen a few little guys that look pretty much like the emojis of today in some of the ancient pieces," he said.

"And I think that might have been part of the spark as well."

From giant totems to tiny emojis

Edenshaw wants the emojis to resonate with Haida youth. But he's aware of the limits of digitization.

"I don't think that the emojis in themselves are going to a make a major change within Haida culture or anything," he said. "But it's keeping the stories and making them accessible. Keeping the language and the art in use and relevant to today."

CBC

Next, Edenshaw would like to see a Haida spell check for people learning the endangered Indigenous language.

For now, though, he's back to creating more traditional work. 

Right now, he's carving a 10-metre long dugout canoe for youth on Haida Gwaii.

Foreclosure rate steadily increasing in Fort McMurray

UNDER KENNEY AND UCP NOT NOTLEY AND THE NDP 

CBCJanuary 5, 2020

Fort McMurray saw about eight times more foreclosures on homes in 2019 than in 2015, new numbers from the province show.

In the 2015-16 fiscal year, there were 26 foreclosure statements of claim in Alberta's oilsands capital; in 2018-19, there were 220, according to data from Alberta Justice and Solicitor General. In the current fiscal year, there were 219 claims to the end of November.

A drop in property prices and increase in insurance costs since the 2016 fire have put pressure on homeowners in the town. Many homeowners bought when prices were much higher and there were abundant jobs in the oil and gas industry.

But the work has disappeared, household incomes have dropped and many are walking away from their homes to seek opportunities elsewhere. 

Foreclosure statements of claim are court documents, usually filed by a bank to begin repossessing a property from a borrower who has fallen behind on mortgage payments.

The process isn't complete until a judge rules and issues a foreclosure order.

Ryan Chernesky, founder of Calgary-based Alberta Foreclosure Stoppers, which helps people stave off foreclosure and get their finances back on track, says about 15 per cent of his business is coming from Fort McMurray, a community which accounts for 1.6 per cent of Alberta's population.

"I think the hard times are already here," Chernesky said. "There's a lot of homeowners that are very much underwater and they're simply biding time, hoping the property market will increase."

He said some of his clients from Fort McMurray have seen their property value drop by 50 per cent. Even if they can sell, they get too little to cover the mortgage.

Condo owners in the community are also struggling, said Chernesky, who owns two units in Fort McMurray. 

Chernesky, along with many others, has seen a dramatic increase in the cost of condo insurance and with the drop in value condos are becoming difficult to keep or sell. 

The insurance premium on one of his condos jumped $150 a month. 

"It's a real drain on my personal resources," said Chernesky. "There are individual unit owners, they're getting foreclosed. They simply can't afford it."

According to the Fort McMurray Real Estate Board, seven foreclosed homes were sold in Fort McMurray in the 2015 calendar year. That number grew to 178 by 2018. As of Dec. 11, 2019, 177 foreclosed homes were sold.

Prices 'in line' with the rest of Alberta

Andrew Weir, realtor and director with the Fort McMurray Real Estate Board, said the number of foreclosures on the market at any one time over the last few years has been stable at around 100 units.  

(David Zalubowski/Associated Press)

"The market is a lot more balanced now than it was, and there's a lot less inventory out there," Weir said. 

"Prices have fallen a lot, to the point where we are more in line with communities outside, throughout the rest of Alberta," he said.

Those prices are now more affordable for potential homeowners, he added. Indeed, a 2018 market analysis found Fort McMurray is the most affordable place to buy a home in Alberta.

Weir owns multiple properties in Fort McMurray, acquired over a number of years. 

"It's been a ride, but I'm not pulling my hair out."

"As somebody that pays very close attention to the market ... when I look at the numbers they're not telling me as scary a story as what a lot of homeowners would believe it is."

Homes harder to sell

Paul McLeod recently moved from Fort McMurray to Lac La Biche because there wasn't enough work for his company Vancon Services Ltd. 

He considered selling his downtown bungalow which he bought in 2011 for about $610,000, but figured he could get only half of what he paid. 

"I would like to sell. Would I like to lose all that money? Absolutely not," McLeod said. 

He's now renting out the home, but the income doesn't cover half of the monthly bills. 

He said more of the commuter population needs to settle in Fort McMurray to bring more people into the market. 

"It's about the oilsands turning around and providing workers with the living-out allowance in order to live back in the community," McLeod said. 

INDIA PROTEST UPDATES 2020

To skirt police restrictions, some Indian protesters take a page from Hong Kong and beyond #GeoNews https://t.co/H8tnHJcAJb
Twitter2020-01-03 11:13 p.m.

Indian government seeks to woo Bollywood stars as citizenship law protests rage on

By Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Promit Mukherjee

ReutersJanuary 5, 2020

By Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Promit Mukherjee

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Indian government invited numerous Bollywood stars and film industry personalities to a private gathering on Sunday in an effort to garner support for a new citizenship law that has triggered weeks of sometimes violent protests nationwide.

At least 25 people have been killed so far in clashes with the police during five weeks of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which eases the path for non-Muslims in the neighboring Muslim-majority nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to gain Indian citizenship.

If combined with a proposed national register of citizens, critics of the CAA fear it will discriminate against India's Muslim minority and chip away at its secular constitution.

Two industry sources told Reuters they had received invites to Sunday's gathering at a five-star hotel in Mumbai. Roughly 20 to 25 people from both the Hindi and Marathi film industry are expected to attend the event, one of the sources said.

An invitation seen by Reuters said the event hosted by two senior leaders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aimed to "facilitate a discussion on myths and realities pertaining to the (CAA)".

Wooing Bollywood stars, who have a huge social media following among Indians of all faiths, could help the BJP alter some of the negative narrative around the new law.

The law, and the outrage it has prompted, pose a dilemma for a film industry that has some big-name Muslim personalities, but caters predominantly to India's majority Hindu population. A handful of Bollywood figures have condemned the CAA, while some others have faced criticism for not weighing in on the issue.

Modi, who spearheads the Hindu nationalist BJP, has often appeared alongside actors and film industry figures at public events. The industry has, in turn, produced films that some critics have said approached political endorsements.

On Saturday, more than 100,000 people took part in a peaceful protest against the CAA in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Further protests were planned on Sunday in Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and several other Indian cities.

A source close to the BJP who is involved in organizing Sunday's private gathering said several party leaders had been enlisted to help explain the rationale of the CAA to various professional groups such as lawyers.

(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Promit Mukherjee in Mumbai; Writing by Euan Rocha; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Australia bushfires: Sydney suburb is hottest place on earth as heat creates storms

Wil Longbottom

Sky News January 4, 2020

Bushfires raging across Australia are generating so much heat they are creating their own storms, with authorities warning wind conditions are causing some of the biggest fires to merge.

Fire tornadoes and dry lightning have sparked even more blazes, as temperatures soared to new highs today - 48.9C (120F) in Penrith, 45C (113F) in Sydney and 44C (111F) in Canberra.

Penrith, a suburb of Sydney, was the hottest place on Earth on Saturday, the Met Office confirmed to Sky News. It was the hottest day ever recorded in greater Sydney.

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has updated emergency warnings, telling those who have not evacuated at-risk areas: "It is too late to leave. Seek shelter as the fire approaches."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: "In recent times, particularly over the course of the balance of this week, we have seen this disaster escalate to an entirely new level."

Victoria had 14 fires rated at emergency or evacuate warning levels on Saturday evening, while New South Wales had 11 rated emergency and more than 150 others burning across both states.

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said: "There are a number of fires that are coming together - very strong, very large, intense fires that are creating some of these fire-generated thunderstorms.

"And unfortunately we've still got many hours to go of these elevated and dangerous conditions."

Posting on Instagram, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex sent their thoughts to those affected by the fires.

Prince Harry and Meghan wrote: "Our thoughts and prayers are with those across Australia who are continuing to face the devastating fires that have been raging for months.

"From areas we are personally connected to such as the communities and people we visited in New South Wales in 2018, to the fires in California and parts of Africa, we are struck by the increasingly overlapping presence of these environmental disasters, including of course the destruction of the Amazon which continues.

"This global environmental crisis has now been described as Ecocide. It's easy to feel helpless, but there's always a way to help."

They also directed their followers to sites they have used to help the relief effort.

The Queen also sent a message, saying she was "deeply saddened" to hear of the continued fires.

She added: "My thanks go out to the emergency services, and those who put their own lives in danger to help communities in need.

"Prince Philip and I send our thoughts and prayers to all Australians at this difficult time."

Winds of up to 80mph are fanning the strength and unpredictability of the fires, with many places facing their worst day yet.

"We are in for a long night and we are still to hit the worst of it," New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian said. "It's a very volatile situation."

The storm conditions are caused by pyrocumulonimbus clouds - thunderstorms formed from the smoke plume of a fire that causes air to rise rapidly and collide with ice particles in the higher, cooler air, and building up electrical charges that create lightning.

Rising air also produces intense updrafts that suck in so much air that strong winds develop - making fires hotter and spreading them further and faster.

The phenomenon is expected to become more frequent in Australia as the global climate changes, according to a 2019 report by the country's Climate Council.

On Monday, a firefighter was killed when a pyrocumulonibus cloud formation collapsed and flipped over his 10-tonne truck. The total number of people killed since the fire season began is 23 - 12 from this week alone, with six people missing in the state of Victoria.

Australia's government has called up 3,000 reservists and committed $20m AUS to hire four special fire-fighting aircraft. A third navy ship with disaster and humanitarian relief equipment has been deployed, while the first of those rescued from a beach in Mallacoota arrived in Melbourne after a 20-hour sea journey.

US singer Pink has pledged $500,000 to help fire services battling on the frontlines. She tweeted: "I am totally devastated watching what is happening in Australia right now with the horrific bushfires.

"I am pledging a donation of $500,000 directly to the local fire services that are battling so hard on the frontlines. My heart goes out to our friends and family in Oz."

Firefighters say some areas cannot be defended.

Sky News' Alex Crawford witnessed the fires from a helicopter, where she said visibility was almost at zero in white-outs caused by the smoke.

"There's a lot of anxiety here, a lot of fear," she said. "I've seen a lot of posters thanking the firefighters, who are doing their utmost to contain these raging fires."

New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers warned the fires could move "frighteningly quick". Embers carried by the wind had the potential to spark new fires or enlarge existing blazes.

"We still have those dynamic and dangerous conditions, the low humidity, the strong winds and, what underpins that, the state is tinder dry," Victoria Emergency Services Commissioner Andrew Crisp said.

One fire on Kangaroo Island, which has killed two people, has broken containment lines and been described as "virtually unstoppable" as it roared through 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) of national park.

Professor Ray Wills, of the University of Western Australia, produced a map that showed the size of the area burned by fires, if transplanted to the UK, would have scorched most of England, from the south coast to almost as far north as Leeds.

Canadian oilpatch hopes float on Prairie helium drilling prospects

The Canadian Press January 5, 2020



CALGARY — A veteran of Canada's ailing oilpatch is hoping a new product drawn from deep under Prairie grain fields will provide a natural resource boom for Western Canada.

Marlon McDougall, 59, says he wasn't interested when first approached last year to join a junior exploration company.

After 35 years in the oil and gas industry, he had grown frustrated by its multiplying headaches, including environmental criticism, pipeline constraints, regulatory burdens and the need to adopt expensive new technologies as easy-to-produce pools of oil and gas are depleted.

But New York-based financial manager Nick Snyder, 36, founder and chairman of privately held North American Helium, assured him none of those problems exist with helium, the lighter-than-air product he plans to produce and export.

The rush to get in on a new resource industry recalls the excitement of the oil and gas sector in the '80s, McDougall, named president and chief operating officer last spring, said in an interview from the company's modest downtown Calgary offices.

"You do things right," he said. "You have an idea, you capture land, you shoot seismic, you go out and drill exploration wells, you make discoveries and it just rolls on from there."

Helium, the second most plentiful element in the universe, is in short supply on Earth.

Demand for the gas once used mainly for military, weather and party balloons has been steadily rising, creating shortages and spiking prices in recent years.

Helium's unique ability to remain a liquid at extremely low temperatures makes it the cooling agent of choice for superconducting magnets in research and medicine (including MRIs). It's also essential in rocketry and plasma welding.

The global market for helium, meanwhile, is being thrown wide open by the U.S. government's decision five years ago to gradually sell off its strategic reserves of the inert gas and turn the market it now heavily influences over to the private sector by 2021.

The environment is ripe for a resurgence of the industry in Saskatchewan, which produced helium from wells for about a decade 50 years ago before foundering due to slumping prices, said Melinda Yurkowski, assistant chief geologist for the Saskatchewan Geological Survey.

"It's still a lot of rank exploration right now," she said, adding no one knows how much helium — produced by the decay of radioactive uranium and thorium — the province contains.

Virginia-based Weil Group Resources reactivated two legacy helium wells in 2016 and built a 40-million-cubic-feet-per-year, $10-million helium separation facility at Mankato in the southwest corner of the province.

Helium was trucked to Weil's liquefaction facilities in the U.S. and sold until the wells were suspended due to production problems in mid-2019. Weil has since drilled a new well to try to restore output.

The company has plans to produce helium in Alberta as well and is considering eventually building a liquefaction facility there to super-cool the gas to liquid form so it can be shipped in high-pressure tanks anywhere in the world, Weil CEO Jeff Vogt said.

Western Canada has an advantage over other new sources of helium in that its best reserves are found in pools made up of 95 per cent nitrogen, said Scott Mundle, an assistant professor and researcher at the University of Windsor in Ontario who has been studying samples from helium explorers.

The nitrogen found can be safely vented to the atmosphere after the one-to-two per cent helium content is removed, because the Earth's atmosphere is made up of about 78 per cent nitrogen, he said.

Trace amounts of methane and carbon dioxide can also be released with minimal impact on the environment, he added.

The extremely high pressure in reservoirs deeper than two kilometres under the surface means wells can be productive for years before being depleted, said Mundle, outlasting shallower pools elsewhere in the world.

North American Helium is the most active of the handful of companies that have staked out a total of 1.7 million hectares of helium leases and permits in Saskatchewan.

It has drilled 13 new helium wells in southwestern Saskatchewan, with 11 considered commercially viable, and has tentative plans to open a plant to process gas from a single well by mid-2020.
Moving forward with production will depend on signing long-term supply contracts with buyers, who will most likely be from among the big industrial gas suppliers who currently control global distribution, McDougall said.

The potential is huge, Snyder said. North American Helium's five-year plan includes wells, separation plants and liquefaction facilities to supply a substantial chunk of global demand currently pegged at about seven billion cubic feet per year.

"We think internally a reasonable expectation is that as the (American) fields decline ... providing about 10 per cent of global supply — 700 million cubic feet per year — is very much the sweet spot in terms of being achievable and capital efficient with the land base we have."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 5, 2020.

Dan Healing, The Canadian Press