TORONTO - Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver says Nova Scotia could be missing out on an economic opportunity by banning high-volume hydraulic fracturing.
Oliver was responding today to a decision by the Nova Scotia government on Wednesday to indefinitely prohibit fracking for onshore shale gas.
He says fracking has been going on in several provinces for decades without any contamination of drinking water.
However, the Nova Scotia ban specifically applies to high-volume fracking, which requires far more water than conventional fracking and has been around for less than a decade.
The provincial government said Nova Scotians have been clear that they are not comfortable with high-volume fracking.