Canada fights opening ANWR

Gary Park

Petroleum News

Three Canadian governments along with several First Nations communities plan to voice their opposition at upcoming environmental hearings to any drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

A spokesman for Global Affairs Canada said any resource development of ANWR would endanger continued conservation of the Porcupine caribou herd estimated at 218,000, which calves in Alaska and spends most of its time in Canada under a U.S.-Canada treaty which commits both countries to preserving the animals.

He pointed out that Canada has established two national parks in an effort to preserve the herd.

The governments of Canada, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, along with indigenous peoples have signed a pact to defend the treaty.

Yukon Environment Minister Pauline Frost said her government will fight any attempt to allow industrial activity in ANWR and will take “a very strategic and proactive approach to protecting” the caribou.

A member of the Gwich’in nation, Frost said her people depend heavily on the caribou for a livelihood and have been lobbying the U.S. government to keep development out of ANWR for 30 years.

NWT Environment Minister Robert McLeod called for an environmental impact study covering the risks of drilling to caribou, polar bears, migratory birds and grizzly bears that would allow “adequate time for consultation and respect obligations established in international agreements and land claim agreements.”

- GARY PARK