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Stewart Muir to deliver keynote at 23rd edition of the BC Natural Resources Forum in Prince George on January 21.
By Geoff Russ
Prince George Mayor Simon Yu addresses the audience at the 2025 NRF.
By Resource Works
More News and Views From Resource Works Here
Prince George is about to become British Columbia’s capital of resource thinking again, as some 1,600 delegates converge for the 23rd annual BC Natural Resources Forum. This year, Resource Works is once again helping to build the conversation by hosting a reception the evening of Jan. 19 – tickets are available on Eventbrite.
Running Jan. 20-22, the BC Natural Resources Forum, at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre, is under the theme “Momentum for Continued Growth: Building B.C.’s Resource Future.”
The timing is not accidental. With energy security, permitting timelines, and investment confidence back on the front pages, the Forum has become a yearly pressure test for how serious British Columbia is about reconciling climate ambition with keeping the lights on and paycheques flowing.
In the host city, officials are treating the week as more than a conference.
According to the Prince George Citizen, city staff were still working in early January to lock down one-on-one meetings with cabinet ministers during the Forum, as councillors prepared a slate of priorities ranging from the promised involuntary-care psychiatric facility to the continuing strain in the forest economy.
The same report said a long list of senior provincial figures is expected to attend, including Energy Minister Adrian Dix, Environment Minister Tamara Davidson, Forests Minister Ravi Parmar, and BC Hydro CEO Charlotte Mitha, among others.
Setting the table: The ARC reception
Resource Work is leaning into that concentration of decision-makers, starting the night before. On January 19, it will host the Alliance of Resource Communities welcome reception as the mayors’ kickoff for Forum week.
ARC is a vehicle for resource-dependent municipalities to speak with one voice about practical barriers to development, from infrastructure capacity to regulatory delays.
ARC and Resource Works are previewing the month’s major conventions, which calls the reception “a prime event” on the eve of the Forum and notes it is hosted with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
The Forum’s program emphasizes Indigenous leadership and partnerships, and highlights the broader political draw, including Premier David Eby and senior ministers, that makes Prince George the province’s most concentrated venue for resource-sector advocacy each January.
Centre stage at the Forum
Inside the Forum itself, Resource Works will be front and centre.
The Forum’s 2026 speaker list includes Resource Works’ founder and CEO, Stewart Muir, for a keynote address on January 21. His speech, titled “Seizing B.C.’s Global Resource Advantage – Momentum for Growth,” will reflect his distillation of current events and priorities for Canadian energy and natural resources.
Many of the same themes were already flashing in Prince George last year, before tariff uncertainty and continental political risk returned to centre stage.
In January 2025, FortisBC CEO Roger Dall’Antonia warned against pursuing decarbonization in a way that sidelines reliability and resilience, pointing to the catastrophic Texas grid failure in 2021 as a case study. Energy Futures Institute chair Barry Penner cautioned that heavy electrification and a phase-out of natural gas for heating could leave B.C. more exposed in years when drought forces electricity imports.
Prince George is a hub of resource innovation and the Forum is a place where partnerships and project ideas take shape. It is a meeting point for leaders across minerals, forestry, and energy, where the value of the week lies in getting the right people in the same rooms, in person, impacting the decisions that shape the future.
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