B.C. stirs up offshore decision-making on drilling

Gary Park, Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Showing its frustration with foot-dragging and rifts within the Canadian government, British Columbia is trying to drive decisions on its offshore oil and natural gas ambitions.

It has grabbed the initiative by seeking external legal advice on the key issues blocking development — constitutional and intergovernmental affairs, regulation, administration and taxation.

Having set 2005 as its target date for approving seismic surveys, the province is now assembling a team of lawyers to support government officials.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government shows little desire to push ahead with offshore development.

It has been bogged down by a cabinet split between Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal and Environment Minister David Anderson, both of whom represent British Columbia electorates in the Canadian Parliament. The senior government has also said it needs more time for scientific and public consultations as part of a review process.

Meanwhile, a report by the David Suzuki Foundation, an environmental organization, has listed the legal pitfalls to opening up the offshore to resource exploitation.

The foundation said:

• It is not clear that the British Columbia government has jurisdiction over the offshore areas that have the highest oil and gas potential.

• Unresolved aboriginal land claims present a formidable barrier to the oil and gas industry, especially with the 7,000-member Haida Nation having filed a court claim to Native title in the Hecate Strait between the Queen Charlotte Islands and the mainland.

• The cost of cleaning up any oil spills would land on the Canadian and British Columbia governments.

The foundation argued that even if it can be shown the province has control over Hecate Strait and the Queen Charlotte Sound and that resource revenues would flow to the province, the federal government could be stuck with the costs of any damage to the shipping or fishing industry resulting from oil and gas activities.

It also said that the federal-provincial offshore petroleum boards which have regulatory control over Newfoundland and Nova Scotia waters give greater priority to resource development rather than environmental concerns.

The report said the Newfoundland oil industry, which started production in 1997 and has only two operating fields, has already logged close to 100 minor spills, which the fishing sector alleges have been ignored.