Government

Federal Government

Newfoundland's Hibernia project cost over $1 billion in government grants, $190 million in tax exemptions, and $2.66 billion in loans and loan guarantees. For every million dollars invested by government, one local job was created that lasted, on average, five years.

In 2004 the federal government held public hearings and First Nations interviews to learn British Columbians' views on the offshore oil and gas moratorium. The Priddle Federal Review heard from 3,700 people, many of whom work and live on the coast. Seventy-five percent of the participants said they wanted the moratorium to stay. The First Nations review involved 70 nations. All of them supported the moratorium. Many coastal residents made written submissions to the Priddle review panel. Click here to view some of the submissions.

The federal government has not announced it will respect the wishes of the majority of the population. Their silence gives the provincial government the opportunity to continue advancing their pro-development agenda.

In a briefing to the Province of B.C., the federal government said that five to seven years of research was still needed to fill the gaps in information before taking a decision on the moratorium. As of January 2005, none of this research had been done.

Federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said in November 2006 that offshore drilling is not on the federal government’s agenda and there was no intention of adding it.

Science Review

In 2003 the Royal Society of Canada was contracted by Natural Resources Canada to conduct a science review of the effects of offshore oil and gas development in B.C. Many participants felt that the science review focused too heavily on information presented by the oil and gas industry, and was too rushed to include the valuable contribution of independent scientists. Living Oceans Society recommended a list of 30 scientists with valuable information to contribute, yet only four were invited to present their data. Many important science submissions were not even referred to in the report.

Even though the report identified significant gaps in scientific knowledge regarding predicting and understanding the consequences of introducing the offshore oil and gas industry to B.C.'s coast, it also recommended that with proper regulations, this industry could go ahead.

This recommendation is as confusing as it is troubling given that lawyers who specialize in Canadian Environmental Assessment legislation have clearly stated that such a regulatory regime only exists on paper, not in reality. Living Oceans Society commissioned a review of the regulatory framework that oversees offshore oil and gas and believes it would be a mistake to rely on it to protect the ocean from the impacts of offshore oil and gas.

Provincial Government

British Columbia's government is keen to develop offshore oil and gas, although their ability to do it without the federal government's support is limited. In 2003, the government created the Offshore Oil and Gas Team to promote and help establish an offshore oil and gas industry. Originally given a budget of $10 million over two years, in 2004 the province approved a total of $17 million to support the team's work. The University of Northern British Columbia has also received $2 million from the province to conduct research on the social and ecological issues surrounding offshore oil and gas.

That is $29 million that would have been better spent on promoting clean energy opportunities or sustainable wild fisheries that would benefit our coastal communities.