The David Suzuki Foundation applauds the federal Official Opposition's commitment to formalize the existing B.C. crude oil tanker moratorium. This promise, if implemented, would legislatively formalize a long-standing and important measure that has kept dangerous crude oil cargo away from most of B.C.'s northern coastal waters. The existing moratorium has the overwhelming support of British Columbians and the rest of Canada and deserves to be legislatively carved in stone — and extended to the entire BC coast — to prevent future oil spills like the catastrophic BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The David Suzuki Foundation also welcomes Official Opposition's promise to halt all new leasing and oil exploration activities in Canada's Arctic pending an independent examination of the risks related to petroleum activity in the North. This would be a welcome interim step on the route to a federal policy that must, ultimately, ban all oil exploration and drilling in Canada's fragile Arctic.
However, the Foundation does not believe that the promised "world-leading oil spill contingency plan" should be seen as a licence to open up new drilling beyond the three wells that are currently operating off Canada's Atlantic coast. The reality is that offshore oil spills can never fully be cleaned up, regardless of their size or the technology used. The lingering oil, and the death and environmental damage that accompanies it, remains in the marine and coastal environment for years or even decades.
The David Suzuki Foundation also welcomes the Official Opposition's promise to expand Canada's marine protected areas network and establish timelines and targets to implement integrated ocean management and ocean zoning. A comprehensive network of marine protected areas and ecosystem-based management plans developed through marine-use planning processes — as currently being undertaken in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area — are an important step in protecting critical habitat and restoring populations of depleted marine species.
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For more information, please contact:
Sutton Eaves
Communications Specialist
seaves@davidsuzuki.org
