Canada to allow oil and gas exploration in protected area

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Daniel Martins

Digital Reporter

Saturday, June 24, 2017, 6:11 PM - A large Marine Protected Area (MPA) planned for Canada’s East Coast will allow oil and gas exploration in much of its territory, according to newly published regulations, raising environmental activists’ ire.

“We feel that oil and gas activities are not compatible with any marine protected area,” Sigrid Kuehnemund, an oceans expert with WWF-Canada, told The Weather Network Friday. “We’re not against oil and gas by any stretch, but we do feel that an oil and gas production platform does not belong within an MPA.”

A spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Vance Chow, told The Weather Network there is no oil and gas activity taking place in the area at the moment, and any proposed projects would be subject to “rigorous” environmental assessment.

“Only activities that are determined to be compatible with the conservation objectives would be allowed to continue,” Chow said.

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Protected area is Canada's largest at sea

The proposed new MPA would cover 11,619 km2 of the Laurentian Channel, a deep underwater trench between Newfoundland and the Maritimes. First identified as an area of interest in 2010, it would be the largest such MPA in Canadian waters.

The new regulations ban commercial and recreational fishing activities, but allow oil and gas exploration in most of the territory. The government says the effect of exploration and production on sea life is “considered reversible due to the species’ behaviour.”

“Unlike coral, these species are mobile and can move away from noises and other disturbances,” the regulations say. “Results from environmental effects monitoring programs from Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil and gas production have shown no significant adverse effects.”

Chow adds the plan's conservation component were "created in collaboration with Indigenous communities, fishing industry, oil and gas industry, environmental non-government organizations, stakeholders and governments at all levels."

But WWF-Canada said oil and gas activities still carry multiple risks for wildlife, such as contamination of food webs, toxic drill waste, noise pollution and the risk of spills.

“That can have devastating impacts on species, as well as the ocean surface and the sea floor,” Kuehnemund says.

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As for seismic activity, DFO says it would be limited to within an eight-month window to limit impacts on migratory species, though Kuehnemund says recent studies show seismic activity had a detrimental impact on phytoplankton, tiny organisms that make up the base of the ocean food chain.

The government also says the area has low potential for conventional oil and gas, does not presently have any exploration licenses or wells, and isn’t likely to be seen as viable for development.

Calls for total exploration ban

Nevertheless, WWF-Canada says it's pushing for changes to the law that would establish minimum standards for MPAs to effectively ban exploration altogether, which Kuehnemund says would bring Canada in line with other jurisdictions, as well as line up with what Canadians expect of on-land national parks.

“Canadians as a whole would not consider oil and gas drilling or clear-cutting forestry as appropriate activities within one of our cherished national parks, but that same level of protection doesn’t seem to be afforded to our marine protected areas,” she says.

The release of the regulations on Friday marks the start of a 30-day consultation period, and Chow says public input will be taken into account when the MPA is finalized.

WWF-Canada, meanwhile, has launched a public campaign to urge people to write Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc in support of banning oil and gas exploration from the area.

SOURCES: WWF-Canada | DFO | Canada Gazette