LEFT: Former federal
Minister of the
Environment David
Anderson encouraged
the 1972 moratorium on
drilling for oil and gas on
Canada’s west coast.
BC offshore development
Murky legal nature of development moratoria causes controversy
A rash of activity occurred in Parliament late
in 2010 on an issue many Canadians know little
about — the movement of oil and gas in tankers
off the north coast of B.C. Despite this public
knowledge gap, the controversy over this offshore activity (along with the related question
of the future development of B.C.’s extensive
offshore oil and gas reserves) has important
implications for Canada’s economy as a whole.
The recent flare-up over west coast offshore
oil and gas shipping and development activity
appears to have been caused by successful activism by opponents of proposals to develop pipelines to the west coast from the Alberta oil
sands. And to a lesser extent, concern over offshore exploration and development arising from
the major 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill has reignited
discussion about the potential for such an
environmental disaster happening in Canadian
waters. What has puzzled many Canadians is
why federal parliamentarians are now getting
into the act, with a non-binding motion passed
to ban oil tanker traffic off the west coast, and
the introduction of a private member’s bill (Bill
C-606) designed to enshrine such a ban into the
Canada Shipping Act.
In essence, the cause of this parliamentary
activity is the legal uncertainty associated with
so-called decades-old twin moratoria on oil and
gas exploration and development and the movement of crude oil tankers on the north coast of
B.C. The moratoria are a classic example of a
government policy that has withstood numerous changes of government at both the provincial and federal levels over 40 years. They have
PAUL
CASSIDY
been upheld or championed during this time by
all three national political parties, even though
not one law has ever been passed to give them
any binding statutory effect.
There is even controversy and debate over
whether the moratoria exist in any written form
of any kind. Numerous attempts have been
made to discover their true origin and form. A
2004 report by the Royal Society of Canada
noted as a summary of the historical background that the B.C. government imposed a
moratorium on offshore exploration drilling
during 1959-1966. Then, in 1972, the federal
government imposed a moratorium on crude oil
tanker traffic through the Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound (i.e. the
north coast) due to concerns over potential
environmental impacts. This moratorium was
followed in 1981 by a similar prohibition by the
B.C. government.
But further examination is needed to reveal
the murky legal nature of the moratoria. An
extensive historical analysis undertaken by a
scientific review panel commissioned by the
B.C. government in 2002 concluded that the
“present moratoria on exploration for or
development of hydrocarbon resources offshore
B.C. currently exists as a legacy of a variety of
announcements going back four decades.” And,
for the federal 1972 tanker traffic ban, the panel
was unable to find a single document of legal
consequence such as an order-in-council that
gave effect to the ban. The panel noted that
“extensive searching, apparently by many
people, has not turned up any 1972 Order-in-
Council, despite the fact that its existence is
asserted in authoritative journals (but with cita-
tion only to secondary sources which them-
selves cite no sources.)”
The panel also noted that “an article in the
December 31, 2001 issue of The Globe and Mail
contains the following account of the federal
decision at that time. ‘Mr. Anderson [the fed-
eral Minister of Environment] said he was also
personally responsible for the federal morator-
ium on drilling for oil and gas off the West
Coast. He had urged former Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau to impose the moratorium,
arguing that Canada could not logically express
concern [in the U.S.] about oil-tanker traffic
while allowing oil companies to drill for oil in
the same water. The moratorium was imposed
in 1972.’ ”
