Prince George, B.C.- The Natural Resources Forum in Prince George  is only four months away.

There is a new element for the 2015 edition as a special speaker’s dinner will be held  on the eve  of the actual forum.

Geoff Plant, former Attorney General for B.C. will be the keynote speaker at that dinner,  and his topic will be the recent Tsilqhot’in decision and what that could mean for  industry and development  throughout B.C..  The issue, says MLA Mike Morris  who is hosting the forum, is critical for B.C. “ If we could resolve the First Nations  land issue I think BC would be way ahead of the game.  I think we have the opportunity, and I would like to hear more from the Premier and Cabinet with respect to the meeting they had with First Nations.”

First Nations and resource development will be the focus of a panel discussion as well.  First Nations representatives, along with  Ken Coates  the Senior Fellow in Aboriginal and Northern Canadian Issues with the MacDonald Laurier Institute will be taking part in that discussion as will a recognized Treaty Advisor.

There is a federal flavor to the forum, as Federal Minister of Natural Resources, Greg Rickford will deliver a keynote address.

The forum is set  up in a manner that will touch on  all major resource sectors including forestry, which  some have said  has been relegated to the background “I’ve heard that before” says Morris “:But that certainly has never been the case from my perspective.  We talk a lot about LNG and natural gas  and mining  and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that   just like any organization when they  are looking at their strategic plan,  when they see   something that  is going to  seize a big portion of the market they are going to go for it, and that’s what we see with LNG.  At the same time,  forestry has been very important to us, forestry  is undergoing   a transformation  in the softwood industry and we’ve  got bio-energy  and wood pellets and a whole new way of looking at  wood so I think we need to keep that in the limelight as well.”

The forum is set for January 20-22nd at the Prince George Civic Centre.