“Quite simply, this Bill will allow oil and gas exploration inside a National Park and drilling, including fracking, underneath Sable Island itself, said May. “I’m disappointed that this has already passed the Nova Scotia Legislature, but we will absolutely not support S-15 until these provisions are removed.”

Oversight for Sable Island is divided between Nova Scotia and Ottawa. Both levels of government have introduced identical legislation to create a national park on this wild, iconic island. Nova Scotia’s bill received Royal Assent in early May and the Harper Conservatives have introduced time allocation to make S-15 law before the summer recess.

After years of negotiation, ExxonMobil agreed to give up its decades-old rights to drill on the island, but it insisted on keeping its horizontal drilling rights to natural gas below the island one nautical-mile away and beyond. It would also retain the right to do seismic testing on the island.

Furthermore, Bill S-15 would give the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board, whose mandate is to expand oil and gas production, unprecedented power to make regulations inside a National Park, setting a dangerous precedent and undermining the integrity of our entire national parks system.

“Local environmentalists and the general public are against oil and gas exploration and extraction on Sable Island, especially once it’s a National Park,” said May. “We all want to see Sable Island protected, but it is tortured logic to think that we would protect this rare and pristine area by allowing oil exploration. We must get this legislation right.”

There is pressure to establish a new identity for Sable lsland because the Canadian Coast Guard is withdrawing its services and there is no other government agency to replace it. As a national park, Sable Island would come under the jurisdiction and protection of Parks Canada which has been weakened by the Harper Conservatives.

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As Farley Mowat documented decades ago in Sea of Slaughter, we have already caused a drastic loss of biodiversity in our oceans.  The Magdalen Islanders once hunted walrus, we had Orcas on the east coast, seabirds once blocked out the sun in their enormous numbers, while the coho, sockeye and steelhead salmon runs kept hundreds of B.C. canneries humming, and sea otters existed in large numbers, hanging on to their kelp moorings to munch on abalone.  As beautiful as our oceans are today, what we see is a tragically decimated and threatened water world.

Our oceans are facing numerous threats — over-fishing, pollution from both land-based and marine sources, astonishing levels of plastics circulating in the oceans — an estimated 143 million tons of plastic currently imperils life in the seas, and the dual climate change-related threats of increased temperatures and acidification are the most dangerous of all.  On top of all this we have the increased threat of oil and gas development in fragile ecosystems.

Recently, we have seen a growth of off-shore oil and gas, creating conflicts in some areas between fishing and fossil fuel industries.  The US-Canada agreement to keep oil drilling off Georges’ Bank on the east coast was extended in May 2010 to December 31, 2015.  A similar measure is urgently needed for the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  The Gulf is the most biologically productive marine region in Canada and is essentially an inland sea, as it is surrounded by four Atlantic provinces, with Prince Edward Island in the middle.  Any oil spill would be caught in the counter-clockwise currents of the Gulf, bringing disaster to a multi-billion dollar fishery.   Despite this and despite the fact the promised regional environmental review promised by the Minister of Environment in June 2011 has not yet taken place, the Gulf of St. Lawrence is specifically targeted in Budget 2012 for oil and gas development.

Similarly, recently the Harper Conservatives have launched an oil rush for license bids in the Beaufort Sea.  There is no ecosystem more fragile than that that is ice-covered (at least at the moment) for much of the year.  It is worrying that the National Energy Board has recently accepted industry demands to remove the requirement that any project must be capable of drilling a relief well in the same drilling season to cap any blow-outs.  This is conditional on industry having another viable technology to achieve the same end. So far, the industry has not explained how it will meet this relaxed requirement.

At the same time as the Harper Conservatives aggressively promote off-shore oil and gas development, as well as super-tanker traffic with bitumen crude heading west from Kitimat through some of the most treacherous waters on earth, they are also cutting the emergency response measures to cope with disaster.

Environment Canada’s Environmental Emergency Programme has been shrunk from regional offices, including one in Vancouver, to one office in Quebec.  Ten Coast Guard operations are being shut down.  In BC alone, we are losing the search and rescue operation in Vancouver plus marine communication operations in Kitsilano, Comox and Tofino.  The cuts affect the ability of the Coast Guard to monitor and deal with marine pollution offences. As well, the safety of mariners could be affected.

Meanwhile, the entire contaminants programme within DFO has been shut down.  Nearly all of the DFO scientists studying marine toxicology across Canada are being laid off – 75 scientists. Dr. Peter Ross, a globally respected scientist from BC, recently dismissed from DFO, lamented, “The entire pollution file for the government of Canada, and marine environment in Canada’s three oceans, will be overseen by five junior biologists scattered across Canada – one of which will be in BC.”  (quoted in Times Colonist, “Ottawa sinks pollution checks,” May 20, 2012)

Most shocking, as the Prime Minister presses on to put super-tankers in the Hecate Strait, ranked by his own government as the fourth most dangerous body of water on the planet, scientific studies to determine DFO’s Centre for Off-shore Oil, Gas, and Energy Research (COOGER) is closing, ending work in progress in many areas, including a “Baseline Hydrocarbon Study in Hecate Strait.” It was studying impacts of oil and gas leaks, counter-measures for an oil spill, restoration of environment after any spill, among other key areas.

For Oceans Day, June 8, 2012, our Prime Minister is land-locked.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May represents Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.
Originally printed in the Hill Times.

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• Regional offices of Environment Canada’s Environmental Emergency Programme with only one office in Quebec left.
• Ten Coast Guard operations, including the Search and Rescue Operation in Vancouver, plus marine communication operations in Kitsilano, Comox, and Tofino – affecting the ability of the Coast Guard to monitor and deal with marine pollution offences.
• The entire contaminants programme within Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
• Nearly all of the DFO scientists studying marine toxicology across Canada – 75 scientists.

“The Harper Conservatives are out of control with their slashing of our country’s capacity to do any scientific monitoring or research.  These decisions will have a direct impact on the safety and health of Canadians and have the potential to be devastating for our environment,” said May.

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