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It Gets Even Uglier In Canada
It Gets Even Uglier In Canada
The Province of Alberta, the epicenter of the Canadian oil bust, may be sliding into something much worse than a plain-vanilla recession. And it’s not exactly perking up the rest of Canada.
Layoffs are already cascading through the oil patch, as companies are retrenching and adjusting to the new reality. New vehicle sales are plummeting. And home sales are taking a broadside.
In August so far, total home sales in Calgary plunged 28% from a year ago, on flat prices. Condo sales collapsed 39%, with the median price down 8%, according to theCalgary Real Estate Board. Year-to-date, total home sales in Calgary are down 25%; condo sales 30%. And those condos that did sell spent 30% longer on the market than condos did a year ago, as sellers hang on by their fingernails to the illusion of wealth, and sales are stalling.
And the Business Barometer Index for all of Canada, which measures the optimism among small businesses, dropped again in August for the third month in a row. An index level between 65 and 70 indicates that the economy is growing at its potential. But now it hit 56.7, the lowest level since April 2009.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which produces the index, blamed the commodity bust but added additional sectors, particularly those that are considered absolutely crucial for the hopefully coming economic recovery in the second half: construction, transportation, and retail.
The index dropped in 7 of 10 provinces, even in British Columbia, which was weighed down by “domestic conditions, coupled with weakening economic prospects in Asia.”
And that feverishly expected rebound of GDP in the second half from recessionary levels in the first half? Small business owners don’t see it. What they see is a continued downturn.
But it’s in Alberta where small business optimism has totally crashed. The Index dropped 3.5 points in August to 40.4, the worst level since March 2009, and just one such step above the historic low of 37, of February 2009, the very bottom of the Financial Crisis.
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RCMP planning mass arrests at pipeline protest camp, northern B.C chiefs fear
RCMP say they are just working to keep the peace
A dispute over energy projects and aboriginal rights is heating up at a pipeline protest camp in northern B.C. where First Nations leaders fear police are planning mass arrests.
Since 2009, Wet’suwet’en people, activists and environmentalists have been building a remote camp in northern B.C. to block several major pipeline projects. They include:
- Chevron’s Pacific Trail Pipeline.
- Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project.
- Shell’s TransCanada Coastal GasLink pipeline project.
Shell plans to build a 650-kilometre pipeline from B.C.’s gas-fracking region to a proposed LNG site in Kitimat.
Spokeswoman Shela Shapiro told CBC News the company supports the right to peaceful protest, but called the RCMP after Unist’ot’en protesters prevented workers from using a public road on Thursday.
The camp is about a two-hour drive southwest of Houston, B.C. on rough forest roads.
Shapiro said Unist’ot’en protesters have told TransCanada staff to leave the area “on a number of occasions.”
Yesterday afternoon, the Unist’ot’en Camp posted a message on its Facebook page.
“Coastal Gaslink crews showed up at Chisolm checkpoint. Threatened checkpoint crew that a police report will be filed as they do not have consent to enter the territory.”
‘Non-violent occupation’
Shapiro told CBC that TransCanada is “absolutely willing” to work with camp leaders, saying the company has made more than 90 attempts to speak with the hereditary chief and Unist’ot’en spokesperson.
The Unist’ot’en camp calls itself a “non-violent occupation” of traditional aboriginal land. Unist’ot’en camp protesters routinely stop traffic on remote forest service roads near the camp and turn back oil and gas crews.
Companies trying to use the area say they’re trying to use public roads to access Crown land, and some have ferried their crews to nearby worksites by helicopter.
Now, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says top RCMP officials have told them a major police crackdown is imminent.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Living Downstream of B.C.’s Gold Rush: Alaska’s Fishermen Fear End of ‘Last Wild Frontier’
No fish in the car, warned the rental car attendant at Juneau airport, with the weary tone of someone who had cleaned too many fish guts out of returned vehicles. It was a warning underlined by signs in hotels pleading with guests not to clean fish in the hotel bathrooms.
Fishing is in the DNA of Southeast Alaskans, not only as a sport and common way of filling the freezer, but also as a driver of the state economy. So it is not surprising that the perceived threat presented by a rush of mine applications on the B.C. side of the border has brought together diverse groups who want B.C. to give Alaska an equal seat at the decision-making table and to have the issue referred for review to the International Joint Commission.
“I can’t conceive of not being able to fish for salmon. The grief would be too much to fathom,” said Heather Hardcastle, co-owner of Taku River Reds who has been commercial fishing for most of her life.
“We share these waters and we share these fish. There has to be an international solution,” she said.
Jill Weitz, Trout Unlimited outreach coordinator, wonders why Canadians are not taking the risk of pollution from the mines more seriously.
“This is one of the largest king salmon runs in Southeast Alaska. How is this not significant?” she asked, looking over the side of a boat into the waters of Taku Inlet.
It is a cruel joke that, for the second time in history, the richest minerals in the world have been found in the richest salmon habitat in the world, said Lindsey Bloom, as her gillnet dried in front of her Juneau home
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Fracking triggered 2014 earthquake in northeastern B.C.
Quake one of world’s largest ever triggered by hydraulic fracturing
Fracking triggered a 4.4-magnitude earthquake in northeastern B.C. last year, CBC News has learned, making it one of world’s largest earthquakes ever triggered by the controversial process.
B.C.’s Oil and Gas Commission confirmed the cause of the earthquake in an email statement to CBC this week, saying it was “triggered by fluid injection during hydraulic fracturing.”
The 4.4-magnitude quake was felt in Fort St. John and Fort Nelson in August 2014. It was preceded by a 3.8-magnitude earthquake in late July, also caused by fracking.
B.C.’s Oil and Gas Commission told CBC that several companies were doing hydraulic fracturing in the area at the time, and several more were disposing of fracking waste.
But the commission says it was Progress Energy’s operations that were “associated with triggering this event.”
Hydraulic fracturing, often called fracking, is the process of injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure deep underground to break rock and free gas.
Since the 2014 earthquake, Progress Energy has been ordered to reduce the volume of fracking fluid being used, and the company has complied, according to the commission.
As well, new seismic equipment has been set up in the area. No new earthquakes have been detected in the immediate area.
Sign of things to come?
Progress Energy is owned by Petronas of Malaysia, which also owns Pacific NorthWest LNG, the firm planning to build a giant liquefied natural gas export facility near Prince Rupert, B.C. supplied by gas fracked in northeastern B.C.
Matt Horn, with clean energy advocate the Pembina Institute, calls the significant earthquake “another warning sign for what could be down the road.
“If B.C. goes down the LNG road in a big way, it’s really important when we’re debating LNG proposals, we’re eyes wide open…. to both the benefits and impacts. Increased earthquakes is one of those impacts.”
B.C.’s Oil and Gas Commission declined a taped interview, providing only background information by email.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Another Industry Reported Quake in BC’s Fracking Grounds
Another Industry Reported Quake in BC’s Fracking Grounds
Regulator says tremor likely industry-caused, but company says it’s too soon to say.
Progress Energy, an arm of the Malaysian oil company Petronas, temporarily shut down operations at a wellsite after a 4.5 magnitude earthquake hit an area 114 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John on Aug. 17.
B.C.’s oil and gas regulator said the earthquake was likely caused by hydraulic fracturing but “has yet to determine the cause of the event.” Progress Energy reported the tremor on Monday. No damages were reported to the regulator.
“The Commission is working to obtain a reasonable event depth from local seismic-monitoring data and is collecting more information about the event as part of its investigation,” B.C. Oil and Gas Commission spokesman Allan Clay told The Tyee.
David Sterna, Progress Energy’s director of external affairs, said the company has since resumed operations with approval from the regulator, and that “despite certain media speculation, it is too early to determine whether Monday’s seismic activity was a natural occurrence or related to hydraulic fracturing activities.”
The epicentre of the earthquake occurred three kilometers from a site where Progress Energy was conducting a multi-stage frack into the Montney Shale, a large swath of land stretching across northeast B.C. into northwest Alberta.
In B.C., any fracking operation that measures a magnitude 4.0 tremor or greater within a three kilometre radius of the drilling pad must report the event to the regulator and suspend operations. Alberta operates a similar “traffic light” system for earthquakes in the Duvernay Shale around Fox Creek, Alberta.
That region, which has experienced industry-made quakes for two years, saw a 2.6 tremor in early August.
The shale gas industry injects fluids and sand at high pressure into deep and shallow wells to crack open difficult oil and gas deposits. The injections create a network of cracks that can also connect to water zones, other industry wellsites and faults.
The reactivation of these faults can then trigger an earthquake, sometimes days after the fracture treatment, scientists say.
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LNG Project Would Affect ‘Grand Central Station’ for Salmon, Researchers Say
LNG Project Would Affect ‘Grand Central Station’ for Salmon, Researchers Say
Science letter asks gov, industry to acknowledge ‘full impacts’ of BC project.
The proposed Pacific Northwest LNG project and related pipelines located at the mouth of the Skeena River in northern British Columbia would affect more than 40 different salmon populations harvested in at least 10 First Nation territories, according to a letter published in Science.
That is twice the number of First Nations groups that industry proponents identified as needing to be consulted about the impacts of the project, add the researchers who signed the letter.
Pacific Northwest LNG is an international consortium led by Malaysia oil giant Petronas. If approved by an ongoing federal environment assessment, its $11-billion liquefied natural gas terminal would be built on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert.
The waters surrounding the proposed project are critical for the rearing of millions of wild B.C. salmon — an estuary that Allen Gottesfeld of the Skeena Fisheries Commission calls “the Grand Central Station for salmon.”
The letter, penned by fisheries biologists, First Nations leaders from throughout the Skeena River watershed, and Simon Fraser University professor Jonathan Moore, cites research that shows “industrialized estuaries depress salmon survival.”
Moore, an aquatic ecologist, explained that the purpose of the letter was to get the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) to properly consider the new data on the importance of the estuary for one of the world’s great salmon watersheds.
“This little local spot supports all of these fish from all around,” said Moore. As a consequence, he said, the LNG terminal could “affect populations of salmon 10 kilometres away or 400 km away in the headwaters. What happens in the ‘Central Station’ affects the whole transportation system for salmon.”
In addition to presenting new biological data, the letter asks that government and industry acknowledge the full impacts of the project on salmon, the watershed, and aboriginal communities that depend on both.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Enviro Assessment Review for Proposed $1.7-Billion LNG Plant Resumes
Enviro Assessment Review for Proposed $1.7-Billion LNG Plant Resumes
Woodfibre LNG approved to continue process after 40-day delay.
The B.C. government-led environmental assessment review for a proposed liquefied natural gas plant in Howe Sound has resumed.
The 180-day process was paused June 30, after the Squamish Nation issued a 25-point ultimatum to address concerns about potential air, land and water pollution and spills at Woodfibre LNG, the proposed $1.7-billion LNG plant and terminal at a former pulp and paper mill near Squamish.
Michelle Carr, assistant deputy minister of Environmental Assessment Operations, wrote Aug. 10 to Byng Giraud, Woodfibre LNG’s vice-president of corporate relations, to approve the restart of the process, which came to a halt with 12 days remaining.
“The time limit was suspended on day 168 of the 180-day review period in order to allow the proponent additional time to complete a review of Squamish Nation’s proposed conditions and to submit a report to [the government] that fulfills the Section 13 requirements with respect to Squamish Nation’s aboriginal interests,” Carr wrote, referring to the proponent’s required report on public and aboriginal consultation activities.
In a news release, Woodfibre LNG said it has accepted all the Squamish Nation’s conditions “and is committed to reaching a formal agreement.”
“At the same time, Woodfibre LNG Ltd. also has been working to fulfill the requirements of the provincial and federal environmental assessment processes,” said Giraud. “We believe we have now fulfilled these requirements and can restart the environmental review period.”
What an agreement between Woodfibre LNG and the Squamish Nation would look like is not immediately known. If all environmental concerns were resolved, the Squamish Nation’s 25th and final condition would be a revenue-sharing agreement.
On July 27, Squamish Nation Council decided to postpone a vote on the facility until “sometime this fall” because negotiations continue with Woodfibre LNG, FortisBC and the B.C. government.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Is Natural Gas As Clean As We Think?
Is Natural Gas As Clean As We Think?
This week U.S. President Barack Obama took aim at the American coal industry as part of a comprehensive climate change plan to limit air emissions from what many consider the country’s worst polluter.
Under the plan, states will have until 2030 to cut CO2 levels by a third from what they were in 2005. Outside the United States, Europe is using less coal, the Canadian province of Ontario shut down its coal-fired power generation (albeit in favor of more expensive renewables), and the World Bank last week rejected the notion that coal can cure poverty.
Even coal-hungry China has banned coal-fired power plants in Beijing, finally cowing to health and environmental concerns in the smog-choked capital.
Having turned their backs on coal, many countries are looking to natural gas as an alternative power source. China is plunging headlong into building liquefied natural gas import terminals, and countries are lining up to export it, including Australia, Russia and the United States, which in 2014 approved its fourth LNG export terminal, Dominion Cove Point in Maryland.
Related: Global Oil Supply More Fragile Than You Think
British Columbia’s governing Liberal Party has staked its political future on developing LNG terminals to receive natural gas from the Canadian province’s northeast region, telling voters in the last election it would use revenues from LNG production to wipe out the provincial debt.
Part of the sales job was to characterize natural gas as a clean fuel whose use will actually help decrease global fossil fuel emissions, since nations that switch to it are typically moving from dirty coal-fired power to clean LNG.
But is natural gas really as pristine as its proponents claim?
Not according to a new report released by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in June. The report estimated the amount of gas that is leaked, vented or flared from natural gas and oil production on U.S. federal and tribal lands. It found that 65 billion cubic feet was released in 2013 – the equivalent of the greenhouse gases produced by 5.6 million cars. In New Mexico, a methane “hot spot,” was detected by NASA satellites and in one drilling-heavy part of Wyoming a town measured air pollution readings that rivaled Los Angeles.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Petronas’s Silence on BC LNG Act Sends Disquieting Signal
Petronas’s Silence on BC LNG Act Sends Disquieting Signal
Busy passing project terms, BC forgot to check on events abroad.
As the British Columbia legislature passed its “historic” Liquefied Natural Gas Project Agreements Act on July 21 after a lively eight-day debate, the most important player for which the special summer session of Parliament was convened kept an aloof — and worrying — silence.
Petronas, the Malaysian state energy firm with a 62 per cent stake in a consortium proposing to build a US$36-billion LNG project near Prince Rupert, did not offer a public thank you or congratulatory statement to the B.C. government of Premier Christy Clark for its efforts and hard-earned legislative victory.
The Pacific NorthWest LNG (PNW) consortium’s other shareholders, Sinopec (10 per cent), Indian Oil Corp (10 per cent), Japan Petroleum Exploration (10 per cent), China Huadian (five per cent) and PetroleumBrunei (three per cent), have been equally quiet.
It was left to PNW to issue a brief statement that the act — followed by the July 23 ratification of 25-year agreement terms covering royalty, income tax credits and carbon emissions — “brings us one step closer to building Canada’s first world-scale LNG facility.”
“The remaining condition of our final investment decision, environmental approval from the government of Canada, is being worked on diligently with First Nations, stakeholders and government representatives.”
Petronas’s silence is significant as B.C.’s elaborate undertaking to create, debate and pass the LNG act had been made in direct response to the company’s high-profile complaints and threats to call off the project if it did not receive legal certainty and the offer of generous investment terms. Petronas did not reply to a request for comment on B.C.’s new act.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
As Site C Breaks Ground, Linked Union Declares Opposition
As Site C Breaks Ground, Linked Union Declares Opposition
BCGEU cites First Nation infringement and loss of habitat in motion against controversial dam.
The union representing many British Columbia government workers has taken a position against building the Site C dam, a project some of its members are working on and that other unions support.
“This was a membership driven motion,” said Stephanie Smith, the president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union. “We have 68,000 members and there is a diversity of interests.”
Smith said the motion was brought forward by the union’s environment committee and passed unanimously. There was no debate even though Smith invited discussion, she said.
A statement from the union said it opposes building the dam because it is not needed, it will cause a loss of habitat, it infringes First Nations’ hunting and fishing rights, productive agricultural lands will be lost and it fails the economic test of “providing a lasting net benefit to British Columbians.”
First proposed some 30 years ago, Site C is to be the third of a series of dams on the Peace River and will flood an 83-kilometre long stretch of the river to generate 1,100 megawatt hours of electricity, enough to power 450,000 homes per year.
The provincial government approved the $8.8-billion BC Hydro project in Dec. 2014 and announced it intended to start construction this summer.
BC Hydro spokesperson Kevin Aquino confirmed project construction has begun, and will ramp up over the summer. ”Security has mobilized to [the] site and some initial clearing activities on the north bank of the dam site area are underway,” he said, adding gates and signage have been installed.
Several First Nations and local landowners have filed lawsuits trying to stop BC Hydro from building the dam.
Publicly owned asset
BCGEU members have been involved in the planning and approval of the project. Within B.C.’s energy and mines ministry, about half a dozen members are currently working on the Site C file, a ministry spokesperson confirmed.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
BC’s Gas Export Hopes Face ‘Scandal that Ate Malaysia’
BC’s Gas Export Hopes Face ‘Scandal that Ate Malaysia’
Asian nation’s PM, key to $36 billion LNG bid by Petronas, in corruption probe.
The prime minister of Malaysia, who is central to British Columbia’s liquefied natural gas development ambitions, is the subject of a major financial corruption scandal rocking his country.
Earlier this month The Wall Street Journal, citing documents from government probes, reported that investigators suspected that almost $700 million in cash had been wired through state agencies, banks, and companies linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The company is a state-owned development vehicle chaired by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who also serves as the country’s treasury minister.
Investigators believe the $700 million eventually found its way into Najib’s personal accounts and served as a slush fund for the last election. Malaysia has few rules on campaign donations or election spending.
Najib is the top authority overseeing Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas, whose massive potential investment in B.C. liquefied natural gas (LNG) was greenlit by the provincial legislature earlier this month.
Now, The Australian and other news sources are saying reports of corruption have paralyzed the Malaysian government. “The scandal that ate Malaysia” is how U.S. business news agency Bloomberg is dubbing the financial brouhaha.
The debacle threatens to undermine the nation’s economy, according to an expert writing for East Asia Forum: “Malaysia’s international credibility is on the line, as is its currency, access to foreign capital and future economic prosperity.”
To date a task force investigating the 1MDB allegations has already frozen half a dozen bank accounts in Malaysia.
Petronas key to Clark’s LNG ambitions
In May of 2014, Premier Christy Clarksat for a photograph with Najib, central to any deal she sought with Petronas. The meeting was part of an eight-day trip to Malaysia and Hong Kong to promote LNG development after Clark made election campaign promises that LNG would create 100,000 jobs and erase the province’s debt.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
B.C. fires: More than 100 new wildfires in 24 hours
Lightning, heat and high winds combine to create challenging conditions for firefighters
In just 24 hours, 115 new wildfires have flared up across B.C. — most of them in the Kamloops area and the southeast part of the province.
“Lightning was a huge driver of increased fire activity yesterday and that would be from the lightning activity we saw Sunday night,” said Ryan Turcot of the B.C. Wildfire Service.
Nine communities are under evacuation alerts or orders, according to the wildfire service.
Kelsey Winter, also with B.C. Wildfire Service, said crews are monitoring erratic winds expected to hit the region later today.
“[We’re] making sure we get as many resources as we can today, before the winds pick up, and try to get some containment on those fires,” said Winter.
West Kelowna fire still growing
A fast-moving wildfire on Westside Road near West Kelowna’s Shelter Cove area has now grown to about 430 hectares, up from 175 hectares earlier today and 30 hectares yesterday.
West Kelowna fire still growing
A fast-moving wildfire on Westside Road near West Kelowna’s Shelter Cove area has now grown to about 430 hectares, up from 175 hectares earlier today and 30 hectares yesterday.
Most of the growth has been uphill, away from nearby homes, but the fire has remained difficult to contain on a steep slope, with high winds and a lot of dry fuel.
“Wind is our number 1 enemy out here,” fire information officer Dale Bojara said Tuesday afternoon.
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Nine LNG Questions for British Columbians to Ask Their Politicians
Nine LNG Questions for British Columbians to Ask Their Politicians
Pressing queries in light of high-stakes Petronas agreement just passed.
The British Columbia legislature has just ratified a long-term agreement to lower royalties and taxes for a $38-billion liquefied natural gas project proposed by Malaysia’s state-owned oil company, Petronas.
Pacific Northwest LNG, a consortium that includes Petronas and Chinese refining giant Sinopec, intends to build an export terminal on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert. The Lax Kw’alaams have opposed the project as a threat to salmon and the Skeena River.
The unprecedented agreement, which critics havecharacterized as a crass economic giveaway, guarantees Malaysia’s state-owned company low royalties and low taxes for LNG over a historic 25 years.
Martyn Brown, former chief of staff to B.C. premier Gordon Campbell and a top strategic advisor to three provincial party leaders, has described the agreement as “environmentally reckless, fiscally foolhardy and socially irresponsible.”
The deal effectively makes it difficult for future governments to set LNG-specific carbon taxes or to impose new environmental rules aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. It locks in tax credits for 25 years. And it offers no job guarantees for British Columbians.
In addition to the terms of the agreement, politicians and citizens should now be asking nine critical questions about any LNG development in the province.
1. Have LNG projects become uneconomic?
Many LNG analysts now think the world is oversupplied with the product and that price volatility warrants project deferrals, especially for high-cost proposals in North America. Othersreckon that capital for major projects is rapidly drying up. Carbon Tracker, a non-profit group of financial analysts concerned about climate change, justreported that investors will likely mothball tens of billions of dollars in LNG investment because “there is a finite amount of fossil fuels that can be burnt over the next few decades if we are to prevent dangerous levels of climate change.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Fracking Industry Has Changed Earthquake Patterns in Northeast BC
Fracking Industry Has Changed Earthquake Patterns in Northeast BC
Impact on groundwater and migrating gases mostly unknown, critics say. A special report.
New research and presentations by both provincial and federal scientists show that the shale gas industry, which the B.C. government hopes will eventually supply proposed liquefied natural gas terminals with fracked gas, has caused more than a thousand earthquakes in northeast B.C. since 2006 and changed the region’s seismicity.
The earthquakes, ranging in magnitude from 1.0 to 4.3, include six events higher than 4.0 and more than 20 events that shook buildings and moved furniture in places like Fort St. John. Several events caused casing damage to horizontal wells. Moreover, industry-caused tremors remain an ongoing geological revolution for the region.
Earthquakes with a magnitude of about 2.0 or less are called microquakes and can’t be felt at the surface. Events above 3.0 can be felt on the ground, and tremors just larger than 4.0 can cause minor damage. A great earthquake, capable of extensive damage, typically measures a magnitude of 8.0.
Scientists originally thought that hydraulic fracturing wouldn’t trigger anything more than microquakes. But now that the technology has set off magnitude 4.4 quakes in Alberta, scientists are grappling to determine what kind of hazard industrial tremors might pose to pipelines, dams and other infrastructure.
At Upper Halfway, a community northeast of Fort St. John, residents have described the tremors as a series of crashes and bangs comparable to someone driving “a truck into the side of the house.”
The shale gas industry involves the injection of highly pressurized fluids into wells to crack open difficult oil and gas deposits. The injections create a network of cracks that can also connect to fault zones. The reactivation of these faults can then trigger an earthquake, scientists say.
Due to limited monitoring, industry and government lack a full understanding of how the wave of quakes is changing the flow of groundwater in the region or the migration of gases such as methane, radon and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere throughout northeast B.C.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
B.C. wildfire forces evacuation near Shelter Cove area of West Kelowna
Darkness preventing helicopter or air tanker support from effectively assisting firefighters
Fire crews and officials scrambled to keep residents safe from a quickly spreading blaze near Westside Road in West Kelowna, B.C., which has so far destroyed at least one home.
The wildfire was sparked by lightning on Sunday afternoon, and had largely died down before erupting again late Monday. It’s now grown to 30 hectares in size, fuelled by strong winds and dry conditions, according to fire officials in the Central Okanagan Regional District.
Dramatic images on social media show it burning down the western slope of Okanagan Lake above Westside Road.
The BC Wildfire Service says the fire is burning at Rank 4, which is described as a vigorous surface fire.
The service says in a release that an evacuation order has been recommended to the Central Okanagan Regional District for approximately 70 properties in the Shelter Cove area.
The district has confirmed to CBC News that it is trying to move people out from residences and properties along Westside Road near Shelter Cove between La Casa and Lake Okanagan Resort.
