Nova Scotia’s premier says his government is about to start negotiations with the first company that could frack for natural gas since the province lifted a decade-long ban on the practice.
Tim Houston said Monday that seven companies responded to a February call for firms interested in onshore natural gas exploration. He says his government is about to start talks with one of the companies before deciding on regulatory approvals and financial incentives.
“I’m very pleased with the level of interest in the applicants. I’m very pleased with the quality. It’s the first step,” Houston told reporters after his state-of-the-province address in downtown Halifax Monday.
Houston, who is also Nova Scotia’s energy minister, said three other firms had strong bids but need to provide more information. He expects them to sharpen their proposals for the second call, which was issued Monday and will close Nov. 30. He said he was optimistic drilling could begin this year, but now 2027 seems more realistic.
In December, the government tapped Dalhousie University to administer a program in which the school’s researchers and the private sector will study the estimated 198-billion cubic metres of onshore natural gas in the province. About 64 per cent of the Nova Scotian reserves outlined in a 2017 government report are made up of shale gas, the kind usually requiring fracking to extract in commercial quantities. About 20 per cent of Nova Scotia’s reserves are coal bed methane with the rest conventional natural gas.
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The $30-million program would offer financial incentives and allow companies to proceed with exploratory drilling. It also requires companies to share their findings with researchers.
All the data will be part of a public research paper. Operators will be able to apply for up to 100 per cent reimbursement of their exploration expenses. Officials say the government may negotiate so that money becomes an equity investment, or it may sign royalty agreements.
Houston’s government introduced legislation in February 2025 to lift the decade-long fracking moratorium.
A 2014 report by the Council of Canadian Academies concluded there were numerous gaps in knowledge about the impacts of fracking on land, air and water. It also said that society’s understanding of the potential environmental impacts has not kept pace as companies continue to deploy new technologies.
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Houston has framed increased resource extraction as a way to cure Nova Scotia’s fiscal woes, which include this year’s record deficit of $1.2 billion. He dedicated much of his state-of-the-province address to the topic Monday, saying people who want to “keep it in the ground” expect others to pay for provincial needs like health care, schools, housing and the arts.
“That’s where those who block any attempt, every attempt to build things, to build new sectors in mining or natural gas, that’s where they want to keep us,” the premier said in his speech.
“They want to be righteous, even if it risks everyone else being poor. But believe me, I didn’t become premier to do that. I’m not interested in managing the decline.”
About 12 per cent of the energy currently used in Nova Scotia comes from natural gas, but it’s mostly brought in via pipeline from the U.S. with some sourced indirectly from Western Canada.
Along with mining, gas, onshore wind and hydrogen, Houston has pitched that Nova Scotia could become an energy superpower through Wind West, a proposed $60-billion plan for offshore wind that the federal government has said it may help to fast-track. Quebec and Massachusetts have shown interest in potential exports from the project.
The Sable and Deep Panuke offshore gas projects generated billions of dollars in royalties for the province but were shut down in 2018 after 25 years of exploration and development. The sector has mostly been dormant until last month when a joint federal-provincial regulator approved a $210-million exploration bid from U.K.-based Inceptio Oil and Gas Ltd., led by Nova Scotian James Edens.
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