Post-Event Report

2019 BC Natural Resources Forum

City of Prince George
January 22nd to 24, 2019

From January 22nd to January 24th, 2019 in Prince George – I attended the 2019 BC Natural Resources Forum at the Prince
George Civic Centre. Other local government attendees from the Cariboo-Chilcotin Region including Cariboo RD Chair
Margo Wagner (who is also Cariboo RD Area H Director), Cariboo RD Area J Director Gerald Kirby; Quesnel Mayor Bob
Simpson, Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb and 100 Mile House Mitch Campsall

Full schedule of events can be viewed at http://www.bcnaturalresourcesforum.com/program/

It was a good opportunity to hear about the trends in the natural resources sector including forestry, natural gas and
mining. I was pleased to hear that communities operating in the natural resources sector recognize the need to have
agreements with local indigenous communities to have “social license” to operate in their traditional territories, although
there is still a lot of work to do in this regard….

There was also an opportunity to connect with companies that operate in the natural resources sector in the trade show on
site.

I was able to connect with BC Hydro reps in Prince George onsite and discuss the power outage situation at McLeese Lake
over late December 2018 – early January 2019 along with progress on LED lighting, particularly for rural streetlighting. To
that end, I have asked CRD Staff to coordinate a presentation from BC Hydro on the topic of LED Lighting to the Cariboo RD
Board in 2019….

While it was a worthwhile forum to attend, it would not be a forum that I would annually attend but one where I would
envision attending again, IF it warranted my time to do so…..

Costs to attend:

Mileage -- $266
Hotel - $271
Registration - $629

Respectfully submitted,

Steve Forseth
Director – Electoral Area ‘D’ (Commodore Heights – McLeese Lake)
Cariboo Regional District
SF/sf