B.C. Liberals will ask Ottawa to lift moratorium on offshore exploration, NDP warns
Last Updated: Monday, May 4, 2009 | 6:28 PM PT
The Canadian Press
With just seven days left on the campaign trail, the B.C. NDP warned voters Monday that a Liberal government would ask Ottawa to lift a 37-year-old federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration.
The New Democrats said such a move would result in an "inevitable" environmental disaster on the West Coast. But B.C. Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom said if offshore development can be done in an environmentally sound way, the Liberals are prepared to look at it.
'This will certainly hinge a great deal on the federal government and the moratorium that they have on that right now. But we're prepared to look at it.'— B.C. Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom
A province in which the principal industry, forestry, has been devastated by a pine beetle epidemic, the softwood lumber dispute and now a worldwide economic crash might be more than ready to explore new options in the energy industry.
Internal federal government documents obtained by The Canadian Press through a federal access to information request reveal that the B.C. government is, indeed, keen for the 1972 moratorium to be lifted.
"The government of B.C. views potential offshore energy development as an important component of the province's long-term economic development, especially in areas that are comparatively disadvantaged," said a briefing document provided to the federal natural resources minister in November 2006.
It notes that public views are polarized for and against the moratorium and that First Nations issues and the duty of the Crown to consult with aboriginals "is ever-changing."
Huge economic potential
Natural Resources Canada assessed the potential economic value of the resources of the Queen Charlotte Basin at between $80 billion and $120 billion for oil and $40 billion to $60 billion for gas. That assessment was made back when oil was selling for $45 US a barrel and natural gas for $6 US per 1,000 cubic feet. On Monday, oil was selling for $54 US a barrel and natural gas for $3.725 US per 1,000 cubic feet.
The Geological Survey of Canada has estimated there is a potential 43.4 trillion cubic feet of gas off the B.C. coast and 9.8 billion barrels of oil.
John Horgan, the New Democrat candidate in Juan de Fuca on Vancouver Island, said the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell will pursue oil and gas development, as well as pipelines from the Alberta oil fields to the B.C. coast.
Oil supertankers will soon be navigating the pristine Charlotte Basin and beyond, he suggested. A massive oil spill "is inevitable," he said.
NDP environment critic Shane Simpson said the Liberals have openly — outside election time — encouraged Ottawa to lift the moratorium.
NDP calls Liberals hypocritical
"It's hypocrisy in the extreme," he said of the Liberals' claim to be concerned about the environment and climate change.
Reached at a campaign event in his riding in Chetwynd in northeast B.C., Lekstrom said Monday that if offshore development can be done in an environmentally and scientifically sound manner, the Liberals are willing to consider it.
"This will certainly hinge a great deal on the federal government and the moratorium that they have on that right now," he said. "But we're prepared to look at it, and at the end of the day, this is not [a plan to] extract a resource at all costs."
Lekstrom's predecessor, Richard Neufeld, was more committal on the issue when he spoke with the Canadian Press in January.
"There's a huge value out there off the coast, that, should British Columbians at the end of the day decide to access [it], would go a long ways to paying for all the services that each and every one of us want," the former energy minister said at the time.
Neufeld, who was appointed to the senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year, said Ottawa had not, as yet, "made a decision like ours that they would actually like to start a process."
B.C. voters head to the polls May 12.
