On Wednesday, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB), an offshore-extraction regulatory agency, issued a “Call for Nomination” for Newfoundland ‘s section of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, giving oil companies until October 15 to express their interest in exploring and exploiting parcels of the Gulf.

Incredibly, this is being done before the C-NLOPB has conducted its promised Western Newfoundland Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to determine if it is appropriate to proceed with oil and gas development in Newfoundland ’s Gulf waters.

Meanwhile, today is the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) deadline for arguments against the elimination of oil and gas exploration activities as “designated projects” prescribed by the CEAA’s Regulations Designating Physical Activities.

“As Harper promotes extraction industries across Canada ’s north, concerted efforts are being made to push the same thing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence while Canadians aren’t looking,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands.  “At the same time, there’s today’s little-known deadline for saving assessments for destructive exploration processes.  From coast to coast to coast, this is a recipe for environmental disaster.”

The Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition has written to Max Ruelokke, Chairman of the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board, to express its shock and concern that the C-NLOPB would issue its Call for Nominations, especially before the Western Newfoundland SEA has even begun.

“The Board seems to be in complete denial regarding the damage seismic surveys, exploratory drilling, and offshore oil and gas development cause, especially to marine ecosystems,” said Mary Gorman, Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition.  “If the C-NLOPB isn’t prepared to assume a legitimate, precautionary and ecosystem approach as the alleged ‘regulator’ for safety and environment in our Gulf’s waters, then we should look into changing its mandate so that a genuine regulator can emerge.”

The International Ocean Noise Coalition (IONC) has written to John McCauley, Director, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, on behalf of more than 150 international non-governmental organizations concerned about the impacts of ocean-noise pollution (ONP) on marine ecosystems and their living resources.

“We urge you to include oil and gas exploration activities, including seismic surveys and exploratory drilling, as ‘designated projects’ prescribed by the Regulations Designating Physical Activities (CEAA 2012). To exclude these potentially damaging practices from environmental assessment would conflict with growing scientific evidence, as well as what is becoming standard practice by an increasing number of nations and inter-governmental organizations.

“Most scientists today recommend ecosystem-based management (EBM). The Canadian government has repeatedly expressed its support for an adoption of EBM, but it appears not to consider it when it comes to environmental assessments, particularly for seismic surveys.”

“Increasingly, with Canada’s offshore and other extraction processes, everything is open to development until citizens rise up to protect areas they hold dear,” concluded May.

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Green Party leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands, Mary Gorman, Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition, Dr. Lindy Weilgart, Research Associate in Biology at Dalhousie University and an expert in seismic impacts on marine life, and Dr. Thomas Duck, Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, also called on Canadians and regional provincial governments to join them in stopping the Harper Conservatives’ aggressive extraction agenda in the Gulf.

“We need as many concerned Canadians as possible and their provincial representatives to join us in our call for an exploration moratorium in the Gulf of St. Lawrence” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands. “Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just spent the past few months pushing through his pro-oil budget and omnibus Bill C-38, and now he thinks nothing can stop him. We have to demonstrate that’s just not the case.”

The elimination of federal regulations for offshore development are likely to have dire consequences for the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a highly sensitive ecosystem with over 2,000 marine species that spawn, nurse, and migrate year around, including lobster, herring, snow crab, mackerel, tuna, endangered blue and right whales, leatherback turtle, and harlequin ducks.

Environmental assessments for exploratory drilling, which can be as dangerous as production drilling, were eliminated in the new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012 (CEAA 2012) introduced in Bill C-38. It should be recognized that the largest oil spill in American history, the BP Macondo Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, was an exploratory well.

Environmental assessments of seismic blasting were also eliminated. “Marine mammals and fish are highly impacted by seismic surveys. Whales can strand and die, often bleeding from their eyes; dolphins can go rigid, catatonic, and drown, and the hearing cells in fish can be ripped apart. To carry out this destruction in as productive and biologically rich an area as the Gulf is madness,” Dr. Lindy Weilgart warned.

The Harper Conservatives are eliminating environmental regulations and protections to fast-track offshore drilling in spite of the fact that the Gulf provides a renewable global and regional food source, generating a thriving fishery – including Mi’kmaq and Acadian fishers – which, together with the tourism industry, is worth one billion dollars and creates approximately 50,000 related jobs. At the same time, the Harper Conservatives have not amended the current industry liability limit which now stands at 40 million – nothing compared to the billions BP has spent in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gulf has unique characteristics making exploration and extraction particularly risky. It is a partially landlocked, inland sea with strong, counter-clockwise, tidal currents that only empty into the Atlantic once a year. There is no feasible way to clean up an oil spill because the Gulf is one of the windiest regions in North America. Due to the currents, one oil spill could damage five provincial coastlines (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Newfoundland).

“As coastal landowners, we feel betrayed and abandoned by our governments who are gambling recklessly with everything we have worked for our entire lives – our property values and net worth along with our Gulf’s pristine beauty, recreational pleasures and unique maritime culture,” stated Mary Gorman.

“I would like to formally welcome Prime Minister Harper to the 21st century and advise him that humans are not the only species on the planet. It is long past time to shuck off this anthropogenic attitude of superiority and mastery and learn a small lesson in humility. It is good for the soul. While the rest of the world is embracing change, our government is clinging to 20th century philosophies and business models. This may have been acceptable in the 1950s, but we have moved on. We urge the Canadian government to do the same,” said John Percy, Leader of the Nova Scotia Green Party.

This aggressive extraction agenda is taking place as the government’s ability to monitor negative impacts has been greatly weakened. Professor Thomas Duck highlighted the ongoing reduction of scientific capacity at Environment Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

“Sound policy is informed by science, yet the Harper Conservatives have dismantled much of our capacity to monitor the impact of fossil fuel exploration and development. The elimination of scientific assessments and oversight — indeed, the whole of Harper’s war on evidence — puts the health and safety of Canadians and their environment at considerable risk.”

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“So many organizations are concerned about the dangers of oil and gas development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They are asking the government to please heed the wishes of citizens and halt any exploration in this extremely important and sensitive ecosystem,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands. “We commend the leadership of Canada’s First Nations and Quebec’s trade union, in the absence of leadership coming from our federal government on this profoundly serious issue.”

The AFN passed its resolution on December 8th in Ottawa while CSN issued its press release on the same day.

The Green Party has been calling for a Gulf wide environmental impact assessment including economic, social and environmental impacts and allowing for intervenors including non-profits, fishers, the tourism industry and First Nations. “It is imperative that we not risk the economic and environmental benefits of the region for the sake of exploiting possible oil and gas reserves,” said May. “As the CSN is pointing out, sometimes the cost of development is simply not worth it.”

Pierre Patry, Treasurer of the CSN, commented in a release that regions of the North Shore, Lower St. Lawrence, Gaspésie and Îles-de-la-Madeleine “should not become a science lab, and the research conducted there should not open the door, throughout Quebec, to new engineering techniques bound to create ecological and social damages with far-reaching consequences.”

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“Old Harry should have a wide ranging environmental impact assessment including economic, social and environmental impacts and allowing for intervenors including non-profits, fishers, the tourism industry and First Nations.  We are extremely disappointed that Minister Kent will do nothing beyond a minimal screening of the project; it is completely inadequate.  Our government is failing the people of Canada by not conducting a thorough review of this proposed project,” said May.

Kent indicated in his letter that the broader issue of oil and gas development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence will be examined through an update of the strategic environmental assessment of the Western Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore area.  The Green Party is calling for this strategic review to be amended into an immediate convening of a Joint Federal-Provincial Review with a role for each of the five provinces involved and full public engagement with funding for First Nations, fishers, tourism organizations and environmental groups, with access to funding for independent science for intervenor groups.

“Kent did not indicate any details of how this process will unfold,” said May. “We must not risk a major oil spill in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; it would be catastrophic.  All development including Old Harry should be put on hold until the broader environmental assessment has been conducted.”

As MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, May asked a question on June 16th in the House of Commons about oil and gas development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, pointing out to Environment Minister Peter Kent that this is “a most biologically productive region with over 2,000 marine species including endangered blue whales. It is now threatened by a deep water oil well. This is a region that touches five provinces.”  She asked if Kent would agree to a Joint Panel, the highest level of assessment under CEAA.  He confirmed that he had received a request from the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board to refer the project to a review and promised to consider the facts in his decision.

“The fact is that the Old Harry project is not a good thing for Atlantic Canada,” said Green Fisheries Critic Janice Harvey. “It is putting in jeopardy an incredibly productive and sensitive marine region with important spawning, nursery and migratory areas for lobster, herring, snow crab, mackerel, tuna, ground fish, whales and dolphins. Fragile Atlantic salmon, cod and wolfish, fin whale and humpback whale are listed of special concern. Right whale, piping plover, leatherback turtle and harlequin duck are endangered. In light of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, how can the Canadian government allow this project to be fast-tracked without proper consideration?”

“The development of oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is opposed by First Nations in the region as a short-sighted, potentially disastrous project that ignores all that we know about the sensitivity of the region,” said Lorraine Rekmans, Green Aboriginal Affairs Critic.

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