A5

Brent Mazerolle

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Speak Up

If you believe a lot of people who have been studying the issue, the point at which worldwide oil production peaks is not an unfortunate milestone coming in the next few decades, but actually a point in our history that hit in late 2005 or early 2006.

That's why Tim Moerman, a planner with the Greater Moncton Planning District Commission who has been a leading early voice in sounding the alarm in speeches and lectures in various parts of North America, took the time last Monday to share a bit of what he knows with the folks in the building where he goes to work each day -- Moncton city hall.

And for those of you who roll your eyes or shut off whenever you hear the next doomsday scenario, be it Y2K, or H1N1 flu or climate change (though most who rolled their eyes at the last of those are able to roll them better these days now that they've pulled their heads out of the sand), Moerman's brief to council was actually pretty positive.

Or at least it could be, if civic leaders prepare for change he argues is inevitable, when the recession passes and easily accessed oil declines further to the point it makes last year's $150 a barrel starts to look like a bargain.

From our region's abundance of wind of the type most effective for producing electricity, to our remaining on the main national railroad line, to the tidal power potential of the Bay of Fundy, Moerman says "there are opportunities here. None of them is a done deal. There is a reason for optimism but not for complacency. We're going to have to go after them, the way Moncton went after the call centres and the box stores."

For instance, "if 10 years from now we don't have a factory here building wind turbines, we will have missed out on the biggest thing since the CN Shops," he told council, while also pointing out a scenario where cost prohibitive fossil fuel and the Fundy tides could actually make our region more of an industrial centre than we are now.

Generating tidal power is not yet cost effective but as the price of oil climbs, "that will change. And one of the first places in the world that will change is here in the Bay of Fundy."

He urged the council to pass a resolution similar to one passed in a number of North American cities, saying essentially that the city recognizes the issue and will start planning for the future with peak oil opportunities and challenges in mind. Council obliged.

"I'm not a big sports guy, but I know Wayne Gretzky's rule number one is skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is," Moerman said. " This is where the puck is going."

* Brent Mazerolle's City Hall Report appears each Monday.