N.B. premier wonders about willingness to talk shale gas due to global situation

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has revitalized a conversation in his province that has been extremely divisive in the past: shale gas exploration.

Higgs told reporters last week he believes there’s been a 'shift' in reality and wonders if there’s more of a willingness to have the conversation because pressures from the current cost of living.

A moratorium on the industry has been in place for seven years, since former Liberal Premier Brian Gallant’s government legislated that five conditions must be met in order for the development to be allowed again in N.B.

Some of those include a plan for wastewater disposal, consultations with Indigenous communities, and garner a social license from N.B. citizens.

Higgs acknowledged that criteria, saying he wouldn’t be looking to enforce anything, just wondered if the topic could see more support in the current climate.

"We could also be a roll in the European economy because we could be shipping liquefied natural gas - which is much cleaner than oil - so it's another transition process," he said Friday.

"But there's a lot to this. Believe me, I don't want to relive 2014, or 2012. I don't want to go through any of that. So we would need to work with communities, First Nations, and have a general understanding that, 'Can we be of assistance here to ourselves and others? And is the time right to do that?'"

Opposition was quick to nix those thoughts in the N.B. legislature.

"That ship has sailed. A long time ago. It's clear now, everyone knows it - with the climate crisis, there can't be the development of new fossil fuel infrastructure, we can't grow supply of fossil fuels anymore," said N.B. Green Party leader David Coon. "That's history...that's the dustbin of history where shale gas development belongs."