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19 November, 2001 Ministers Must Veto Bids The Ecology Action Centre is asking the Federal Minister of Natural Resources, Ralph Goodale, and the Minister for Nova Scotia Petroleum Directorate, Gordon Balser, to veto the issuance of nine new exploration licences for the offshore. The Centre is citing the release on November 8 of a House of Commons Committee report highly critical of the licencing process and the decision by the Province on November 15 to relieve the Board of its health and safety duties. "The Ministers must read and act on the recommendations of the all party Committee and veto the bids and reform the licencing process," urges Mark Butler. "If they don't it will just emphasize that the Board is more responsive to the oil and gas industry, than a democratic body, like the House of Commons Committee." Bidding for the nine licences (as well as comments from other stakeholders) closed on November 1 and the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board announced their acceptance of the bids the following day. The Ministers have up to 30 days in which to veto the bids. During the bidding process fishing and environmental groups raised concerns about nearly all of the licences. The licences cover or are close to environmentally sensitive areas, such as the Sable Island Gully and the Stone Fence, close to economically important areas such as Georges Bank, and 7 of the licences are in the Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management Project area-a new DFO zoning initiative under the Oceans Act. On Friday the Nova Scotia Government introduced legislation to better clarify and define jurisdiction over health and safety issues in the offshore. For the Centre, this move confirms what many critics have been saying about the Petroleum Board, that it shouldn't be charge of both promoting oil and gas and protecting health and safety or the environment and fisheries. Says Mark Butler, "I think the worst example of the Board's conflicting mandates is the licencing process. The Board is clearly totally preoccupied with opening up new areas to oil and gas, and largely indifferent to potential impacts on environmentally sensitive areas or other marine industries. The Board doesn't have a definition of environmentally sensitive area and nobody has mapped them on the Scotian Shelf." Overall, the trend is to better define and limit the Petroleum Board's powers and affirm the role of other agencies. When it comes to the environment, the Ministers must veto the nine licences, reform the licencing process, and strengthen the role of DFO and Environment Canada. -30- For more information contact Mark Butler at 429-2202. -------------------- Mark Butler Marine Issues Committee Coordinator Ecology Action Centre 1568 Argyle Street Suite 31 Halifax, NS B3J 2B3 902.429.2202p 902.422.6410f ----------------------- -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar (subscribers only!), please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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