CBC reports, “About 50 people from environmental groups, labour unions and the Council of Canadians staged a silent march in protest of oil and gas development and called for a moratorium on oil exploration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. …(Later) federal and provincial energy ministers wrapped up two and a half days of discussions in Charlottetown, P.E.I. on Tuesday about expanding the country’s oil and gas industries.” The call-out for this action had stated, “Save our Seas and Shores coalition will hold a quiet walk on Tuesday September 11 to demonstrate the respect and awe eastern Canadians have for the Gulf of St. Lawrence beginning at 11:30 a.m. as the energy ministers hold their final session.”
The Council of Canadians has opposed oil exploration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for several years now.
On March 28, 2011, Council of Canadians vice-chairperson Leo Broderick wrote the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board expressing our concern that Corridor Resources could be granted a permit to drill a deep water exploration well in the Laurentian Trench, north of the Magdalene Islands, and that only a screening level of environmental assessment is being planned. Broderick wrote, “The Council of Canadians is requesting that you stop this project. We ask that you declare a moratorium on oil drilling inside the Gulf. And we also ask that you initiate a strategic environmental assessment with a full panel review and a regional public consultation process (i.e. public consultation meetings in all affected provinces).”
Additionally, on November 17, 2010, the Council of Canadians joined the call from Save Our Seas and Shores, Attention Fragile (Magdalen Islands), Sierra Club Atlantic, and the Ecology Action Centre, for a moratorium on oil and gas development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And on April 7, 2011, “Atlantic Council of Canadians chapter delegates, gathered in Tatamagouche, united in concern with the proposed drilling in the ‘Old Harry’ area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. (They said) the lack of public consultation and the information void around the proposed drilling has created more questions than answers.”
Leo’s letter to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board can be read at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7205. Additional Council of Canadians blogs on this issue can be read at http://canadians.org/blog/?s=%22Gulf+of+St.+Lawrence%22.
