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Aboriginal land claim won’t block decisions on B.C. offshore Canadian government gives priority to ruling on exploration ban even if Haida pursue claim to vast offshore region through courts, but verdict could be 18 months away Gary Park PNA Canadian Correspondent
Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal has given fresh hope to proponents of opening British Columbia’s offshore to energy development by insisting that an aboriginal land claim will not be allowed to stall a federal government decision on lifting the exploration moratorium.
He said July 22 that government decision-making on the moratorium will not be halted, even if the Haida Nation’s landmark claim to a vast tract of the Queen Charlotte Islands and surrounding waters ends up in court.
But he also advised British Columbians that a decision on removing the ban is likely as much as 18 months away — the first hint of a timeline for government action.
He insisted, against a background of accusations that his government has been dragging its feet, that the issue is a priority in his department.
“I have always said ... that any time we can create economic opportunity in an environmentally sound way that I’m in favor of it and we should look at what opportunities exist in the offshore,” he said in one interview with the Financial Post. Haida claim offshore The 7,000-strong Haida community jolted the British Columbia government and the petroleum industry five months ago when it filed a writ in the British Columbia Supreme Court claiming title to an area estimated to hold 9.8 billion barrels of oil and 25.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
It was the first time aboriginals in Canada had launched an attempt to control both land and offshore resources within a 200-mile territorial limit.
Haida leaders demanded that before any offshore energy exploration was permitted there should be an agreement ensuring “resource development that is sustainable and ecologically responsible.”
Arguing the British Columbia government has refused to negotiate aboriginal claims, the Haida say they may have no option but to pursue their claim in court.
But Dhaliwal said the Canadian government must make a decision on the moratorium first “then move on to other things,” adding that the Haida claim would not take precedence. Ban extends 200 miles The federal offshore ban affects waters extending from 12 miles offshore to the 200-mile international limit, while a separate British Columbia moratorium covers the waters within 12 miles of the shoreline.
He even suggested the British Columbia government could make an independent decision to lift its own moratorium, although he would prefer to co-operate with the province and reach a joint decision.
But he also said that even if British Columbia goes it alone, the oil and gas industry could not move in so long as a federal ban remained because the federal government controls most of the region covered by its own moratorium.
On Dhaliwal’s list of unfinished business is the need for more scientific information on the potential impact of drilling, especially because environmentalists regard the Pacific Coast marine area as one of the most sensitive in Canada.
He also said there has been no progress in developing a federal-provincial regulatory body to control offshore development, although he saw no reason why one could not be created along parallel lines to those with the Newfoundland and Nova Scotia governments on the East Coast.
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