World class” is the endlessly stated goal of government and industry leaders when it comes developing a regime and creating the infrastructure to first prevent or, failing that, deal with marine oil spills off Canada’s shores.
But they seem no closer to convincing themselves, let alone anyone on the outside, that the objective is within reach at a time when Enbridge and Kinder Morgan are moving closer to increasing crude exports by 1.1 million barrels per day and bringing another 600 tankers a year through British Columbia waters.
Two major studies have been issued recently that come to a common conclusion — Canada is unprepared to handle such disasters.
British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak said her government is not yet at the point where it can identify the “elements of a world-class response” system.
45 recommendations
She made the observation a day after Canada’s Transport Minister Lisa Raitt and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, against the alluring backdrop of a sun-bathed Port of Vancouver, proclaimed that a federally appointed expert panel presented 45 recommendations to improve what they described as a “fundamentally sound” preparedness and response regime.
The three-member panel estimated that Canada faces a major oil tanker spill of more than 10,000 metric tons once every 242 years and identified the area of greatest risk on the Pacific Coast as the southern tip of Vancouver Island, because of its proximity to tankers moving to and from Washington State.
But the three-member panel said Canada’s “rigid, national” regime fails to adequately target high-risk regions.
The two ministers chose the high road in interpreting the report, with Raitt declaring “we want a world-class marine tanker safety system. We will achieve that and this is a great step.”
Oliver placed his emphasis on Canada’s need to move quickly to diversify its crude markets by accessing Asia’s “energy-hungry” world before the United States becomes the world’s biggest crude producer and enters the export market.
“Our only (export) customer could become a competitor,” he warned.
He said the Canadian government has taken a number of steps to prevent spills, including inspections of foreign tankers and aerial surveillance. “The bottom line is that no project will proceed unless it is safe for Canadians and safe for the environment.”
One of 5 conditions
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has made a “world-class” response to spills one of her five inflexible conditions before she will agree to pipelines crossing the province from the Alberta oil sands to export terminals.
Polak said the expert panel report, along with a provincially-commissioned study by Nuka Research that was released in October, will provide the basis for devising a formal policy to spell out what her government requires.
“We have to present something to British Columbians. The test will be whether British Columbians give it the nod,” she said.
In its regulatory submissions on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, Clark’s government said its goal was to have an “effective” response to spills, while conceding that such a response would be “impossible or severely constrained” in scenarios such as the open ocean.
But Polak said the government is not backing away from its demand for an “effective, world leading and world class” cleanup.
Existing tanker volumes
The expert panel, which based its findings on existing tanker volumes, not the proposed increase, recommended the replacement of Canada’s current C$161 million liability limit for each spill with an unlimited liability for polluters.
“We feel that potential polluters should be prepared, through their contracted response organizations, to tackle a world-class discharge, whether it be the full cargo of a tanker or a complete release of bunker fuel on board a vessel,” the report said.
It was emphatic that “Canadian taxpayers should not bear any liability for spoils in Canadian waters.”
The panel also called for annual spill training exercises, regional risk assessments based on local geography, and faster emergency responses.
It said current planning is “particularly lacking” in the area of cleaning and rehabilitating oiled wildlife and the management of oil waste from spill recoveries.
Raitt pledged the government will “take all necessary actions to prevent oil spills, clean them up should they happen and ensure that polluters.”
However, legislation will not be introduced until the panel has completed the second phase of its work next where, including consultations with the petroleum industry, First Nations and communities, and an examination of safety requirements for ship-source spills of hazardous and noxious substances, including LNG, and potential spills in Arctic waters.
Readiness called dismal
Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations alliance and a hard-line opponent of allowing Enbridge’s Northern Gateway to proceed, said the federal readiness for an oil spills is dismal, noting that during a November exercise Vancouver’s port crews needed six hours to get booms into the water.
“We get no comfort on the prevention side, we get no comfort on the readiness side and there is no response for an oil spill from a tanker,” he said.
“Until (the federal government) learns to clean up a spill and until they accept responsibility for the spills, I think British Columbians will tell them to take their oil somewhere else.”
Will Horter, executive director of the Dogwood Initiative, said environmentalists are worried that the province is lowering its standards on marine safety.
“People are getting very nervous about what the British Columbia government’s intentions are,” he said, referring to signs that the province and Alberta have patched over some of their differences on the Northern Gateway project.
Living Oceans Society executive director Karen Wristen said the expert panel report overlooks the fact that it would take years and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to put in place the needed regulations, infrastructure, training and human resources to meet its objectives.
“You can’t go from zero to world class at the stroke of a pen,” she said.
