Save Our Seas and Shores | Moratorium Needed on Exploration and Drilling in the Gulf of St. Lawrence | Page 3

Leader of the Green Party of Canada, Elizabeth May is standing alongside local community leaders to denounce the decision of provincial and federal regulators to give Corridor Resources Inc. a free pass for the third time at the Old Harry site, a proposed deep water oil well in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. “This is a free pass to the oil and gas industry, and a slap in the face to fishermen, Aboriginal communities, and the local tourism industry, which all rely on the health of the Gulf of St. Lawrence,” concluded May. “This licence should never have been extended, much less for free.”

The Canada – Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLPB), with the approval of both federal and Newfoundland Natural Resources ministers (James Carr and Siobhan Coady), extended Corridor Resources’ exploration licenseon the Old Harry site for an extra year, a license that was set to expire last Friday January 15. This favour was granted without even requiring the mandatory one million dollars drilling deposit to obtain an extension. It is the third time in four years that Corridor obtained such a special privilege, a situation that is strongly denounced by the St. Lawrence Coalition.The Board justifies this exploration license extension by saying it is necessary in order to hold public as well as First Nations consultations. Yet, ex-Environment Minister Peter Kent had already asked the Board in August 2011, over four years ago, to hold such “extensive public consultations”. The Board did set up an inter-provincial consultation in September 2011, to be under the direction of Commissioner Bernard Richard, but it was canceled in February 2012 by the Board, without justification, a few days before it officially started. “The required consultations have still not been held. And now the Board dares to say that the extension is needed to perform consultations that they have been pushing forward for the last four years. This is disrespectful to all the citizens, scientists, fishermen, First Nations, who, for many years, have had deep concerns about the dangers of such offshore drillings” says Sylvain Archambault, biologist (SNAP Québec) and spokesperson for the St. Lawrence Coalition.

It seems like Corridor Resources has some well connected friends. On Friday, January 15, the oil and gas company received yet another extension to its Old Harry exploration lease in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This time, federal ministers and their provincial counterparts in Newfoundland ratified the existing Atlantic Accord legislation, so that Corridor can sidestep the $1 million it would have earlier had to pay to extend and secure this lease. Article by Miles Howe, Halifax Media Coop, and audio interview with Mary Gorman, spokesperson for Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition.

Sierra Club Canada Foundation and the Save Our Seas and Shores (SOSS) Coalition are deeply disappointed that a third extension has been granted for Corridor Resources’ exploration lease in the Gulf of St. Lawrence by federal and provincial natural resources ministers. The junior oil company was obliged to pay $1 million dollars to extend its […]

The Canadian Press Jan 15, 2016 2:05 pm EST ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Environmental activists who want a drilling moratorium in the Gulf of St. Lawrence weren’t impressed Friday as regulators extended an oil exploration licence for the Old Harry site by another year. Corridor Resources Inc. (TSX-CDH) of Halifax had until Friday to offer […]

By Konrad Yakabuski MONTREAL — The Globe and Mail Dec. 10, 2015 Excerpts: Blame Al Gore. No sooner had the former-U.S.-vice-president-turned-enviro-evangelist praised a beaming Philippe Couillard’s “incroyable” efforts to combat climate change than the Quebec Premier lost it when a reporter confronted him with an inconvenient truth: His government is putting up most of the […]

CTVNews.ca Staff Tuesday, November 24, 2015 1:06PM EST   Four-time Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke says he considers Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq people to be his “neighbours,” and that they’ve inspired him to support a moratorium on drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. “You know, I have a place up in […]

Award-winning journalist Maureen Googoo, owner/editor of Kukukwes.com covered this story. The excerpts and photographs come from the complete article on Kukukwes.com, an independent Aboriginal news organization. “Mi’kmaq leaders from Listuguj, Gespeg and Gespegagiag in Quebec – which form the Mi’gmawei Mawiomi Secretariat – worked with officials with Paqtnkek and the Save Our Seas and Shores coalition to ask the Hollywood actor help them raise awareness about the negative effects of offshore drilling in the Gulf area. Troy Jerome, executive director of the Mi’gmawei Mawiomi Secretariat in Quebec, said Canada should not allow offshore drilling in the Gulf of St. Lawrence without first consulting with and speaking to the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Innu peoples.”

In this OpEd, Gretchen Fitzgerald, director of Atlantic Canada chapter, Sierra Club tells us how the Chronicle Herald article “Oil, Water and Old Harry” got it wrong when it implied that oil prices are the most important obstacle to oil and gas development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. “The implication of this slant is that if oil prices rise, we will see development go ahead. The article also got it wrong when it implied that the threat of one oil well was insignificant to the Gulf’s ecology and economy. Finally, the article also ignored the fact that a single well, as damaging as it could be, is merely the toehold for future development, and that in the context of global climate change, it is imperative we shift away from these dangerous fossil fuel projects.” She concludes: “In the weeks leading up to UN negotiations on climate change in Paris, we need to acknowledge that some oil will need to be left in the ground to secure our future. Highly significant ecological areas such the Gulf should be top on our list to declare off-limits, whether oil is at $40 or $400 a barrel”.