“Liberals’ Rationale for Offshore Moratorium Is Way Off Base”

November 24 , 2004

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams’ says he’s been “shafted” by Prime Minister Paul Martin on offshore oil and gas revenues. Yet when it comes to oil and gas policy, it’s British Columbia that the federal Liberals have shafted most of all.

Last month, Premier Williams angrily accused Mr. Martin of breaking his election promise that Newfoundland could keep 100 percent of its oil and gas revenues without reductions in equalization payments. Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm has also joined the Atlantic offshore oil and gas fray, ready to challenge Ottawa.

I believe the Liberals should live up to a campaign promise they clearly made, especially since it provides an opportunity for long-term prosperity for the East coast region. However, I also think that each of the leaders and governments involved should pause a moment to recognize that at least they have an offshore oil and gas industry to fight about!

Not so here in British Columbia. While the intergovernmental squabble brews over offshore oil and gas in Atlantic Canada, their exploration and drilling activities continue. Likewise in the Arctic and in the Great Lakes. BC, however, remains in the midst of a 32-year moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration.

The federal Liberals’ quick-response justification for the moratorium is the need to safeguard the environment. What about the environment in Atlantic, Arctic and Great Lakes waters? If measures can be implemented to pursue oil and gas opportunities while protecting the marine and plant life there, why can’t the same precautions be taken off BC’s coast?

The federal government won’t even allow seismic testing to determine the presence of oil and gas. There has been 1.3 million kilometres of seismic line off Newfoundland’s coast, but a mere 34,000 kilometres has been explored off the West coast.

BC’s coastal communities have been challenging to the BC provincial government to assess ways in which they may seize upon the benefits of offshore oil and gas resources. In response to these requests, the BC Minister of Energy & Mines, Richard Neufeld, and his department are examining options that would, at the very least, allow further seismic testing.

In Ottawa this week to brief BC MPs, Minister Neufeld pointed out that even if the moratorium on drilling is maintained, it shouldn’t necessarily prevent seismic work to determine the existence of resources. Resources that could be used to fund healthcare and seniors programs, to name a few priorities.

It was just this past May that Minister of Natural Resources John Efford went to Houston, Texas to boast of new incentives for offshore drilling activity in Atlantic Canada. He announced his government was lifting duties imposed on drilling units and that, following negotiations with Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, the Liberals would permit oil and gas exploration in the Laurentian sub-basin. Why the double standard?

The federal Liberals persistently puzzle over the concept of western alienation. They wonder why they can’t connect with western voters. The Liberals need to look no further than the thriving offshore oil and gas industry in Atlantic Canada and the one they continue to deny British Columbians.

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