September 4, 2013 – Victoria, BC
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May claims leaked documents reveal the federal government is spending taxpayer dollars to assist Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project.
The controversial oil pipeline proposal would deliver diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to a port at Kitimat, where it would be loaded onto tankers for delivery to customers in Asia.
The documents — in condensed form — were released at a news conference this morning with Oak Bay-Gordon Head Green MLA Andrew Weaver at the Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria.
The Greens maintain the documents are a “smoking gun” and show that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is running a so-called Northern Gateway Project for the purpose of researching what diluted bitumen does in an oil spill, essentially subsidizing research Enbridge failed to do to satisfy the province, said May.
Environment Canada, meanwhile, is spending tens of millions to enhance navigational meteorological reports for the route from Kitimat and through Hecate Strait specifically for supertankers with oil, claims May.
“This is getting in place what you would need to tell a tanker, ‘Don’t enter the Hecate Strait now, there is a major storm brewing.’ That’s what this is for. This is not anticipatory. This is not about a study. This is about operationally dealing with supertankers full of dilbit,” said May.
The Greens maintain the documents belie Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s statements to the effect he will not make decisions about Enbridge’s proposal before it is reviewed by the Joint Review Panel.
Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver rejected the notion of a leak, in a statement to the Times Colonist this afternoon.
“Elizabeth May needs to check her sources,” Oliver said in the statement, e-mailed by press secretary David Provencher.
“This ‘leak’ was publicly announced … in Vancouver last March. Work on tanker safety is critical to ensure we have world-class marine safety on Canada’s coastlines. While the Green Party and the NDP oppose resource development projects before the science is in, our government will not make decisions until an independent, scientific review determines they are safe for Canadians and safe for the environment."
Oliver’s statement referred to an announcement he and Transport Minister Denis Lebel made in Vancouver about work on the implementation of eight tanker safety measures along with the introduction of the Safeguarding Canada's Seas and Skies Act, and the creation of a Tanker Safety Expert Panel to review Canada’s current tanker safety system and propose further measures to strengthen it.
In a March 18 news release, Oliver said: "While our current tanker safety system has served us well for many years, it is essential that we strengthen it to meet future needs, as the transportation of Canadian exports is expected to grow and create many high-quality jobs in Canada.
“As a trading nation, Canada depends on marine shipping for economic growth, jobs and long-term prosperity,” Oliver said. “There will be no pipeline development without rigorous environmental protection measures and the tanker safety initiatives we are announcing today are an important aspect of our plan for Responsible Resource Development."
The hearing process for the Joint Review Panel, conducted by the National Energy Board and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, has concluded and the panel is expected to submit its recommendations to the federal government, through the Minister of Natural Resources, and make those recommendations public by Dec. 31.
The Greens insist however the prime minister is pushing ahead without the panel results, spending more than $100 million to support industry based research — at a time of major cuts to science funding for climate change and marine contaminants.
“We have specifics of exactly what they are spending, where they are spending it, and it absolutely demonstrates — from my point of view at the federal level — that Stephen Harper has misled the House,” said May, in an interview.
The full documents were not released, said May, to protect whomever or whatever group leaked them to Weaver.
“They are spending substantial money now for a project that according to them is hypothetical. They want it to go ahead. They are spending money now,” May said. “They don’t want any delays — at the point of approval — for putting in place a meteorological system, so they are jumping the gun and spending the money now so there will be no delays later.
“We are blowing the whistle on it and we’ll see what Canadians want to do about it,” May said.
The federal government’s economic action plan 2013 proposes providing $248 million over five years to Environment Canada to revitalize Canada’s weather services.
“Nowhere in the budget does it suggest that the priority for meteorological services in Canada is for a tanker route that’s currently not used and that most British Columbians never want to see ever used.”
In June, the provincial government rejected the Enbridge Northern Gateway oil pipeline proposal, saying the company plans do not adequately address B.C.’s concerns about environmental damage.
In a final written response to the federal Joint Review Panel, the province said it cannot support the $6-billion project as it stands because it did not meet provincial conditions and that company plans for dealing with bitumen spills are inadequate.
“Northern Gateway has said they would provide effective spill response in all cases. However, they have presented little evidence as to how they will respond,” B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake said at the time.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is researching what diluted bitumen does in an oil spill and how it behaves in a marine environment, which is the information the B.C. Liberal government said was inadequate, May said.
“They are backstopping gaps where Enbridge didn’t do it’s homework; they are working on doing the research that would answer questions that the province said needed to be answered,” May said.
In terms of Environment Canada’s research, “they are committing tens of millions to one region for the purpose of guiding oil tankers through navigational routes that currently are not used by supertankers — so of course it’s anticipatory of an approval,” May said. “It would be absolutely appropriate if the project were approved but the project is not even through the National Energy Board project yet.”
© Copyright 2013
From Times-Colonist: http://www.timescolonist.com/greens-say-documents-are-smoking-gun-of-northern-gateway-project-help-from-harper-government-1.611976