After decades of silence, voices are rising in Newfoundland and Labrador to criticize the environmental assessment process for the Bay du Nord oil megaproject, but also its potential impact on global warming and fish stocks in the province.
In reviewing a draft environmental impact statement for the project, which dates from 2019, eight scientists from Fisheries and Oceans Canada unanimously conclude that the report “is not a reliable source of information for decision-making processes”.
This is the document on which the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (AEIC) bases its assertion that the Bay du Nord development project “is not likely to cause adverse environmental effects. important when mitigation measures are taken into account”.
Frédéric Cyr, scientific researcher at Fisheries and Oceans, even believes that this report is biased. “Subjective expressions such as ‘relatively rare’ and ‘extremely unlikely’ should be removed from the report” when discussing oil spills, he said.
“The authors of the report use very rare disaster scenarios,” he adds, and set aside the more probable scenarios that could also lead to a spill. According to the calculations of the eight researchers, if 40 wells are drilled in 30 years (the maximum scenario envisaged by Equinor), the probability of an “extremely large spill” is 16%.
In response to the AEIC report, the scientist retorted that “it is not true that it meets the highest environmental standards”.
More than 500 million barrels
Environmental groups in the rest of Canada were quick to denounce the green light given in April by Steven Guilbeault to the project. Ecojustice, on behalf of Équiterre and the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, is suing the federal Minister of the Environment. The non-governmental organization maintains that the exploitation of 300 million barrels of oil in the marine environment goes against the country’s climate obligations.
This number has also jumped since last week, when Equinor spokeswoman Alex Collins announced that the oil giant now estimates that it could extract more than 500 million barrels of crude oil there.
Local factions of Canadian NGOs are also beginning to speak out against the industry in Newfoundland and Labrador, despite its dominance in the province’s economy.
“It definitely feels more like David than Goliath,” laughs Yvonne Earle, who leads the Avalon Peninsula division of the Council of Canadians, a grassroots organization. Members of the Newfoundland Division staged a demonstration to protest the federal decision and participated in a second, organized by the Sierra Club Canada Foundation.
“It’s important that Equinor, its shareholders and the governments know that there are people in Newfoundland and Labrador who are against this project,” she said. The activist calls for a green transition in which workers in the oil and gas industry would be trained in related fields.
A “just transition”, as she envisions it, should benefit everyone. “There are educated young people getting well-paying jobs from the oil projects, but there are also all those who aren’t even paid $15 an hour yet! It is time to ask ourselves who really benefits from these projects, and how much society as a whole benefits from them. »
The fishing sector, also essential in the province, is concerned about the impact of the construction and operation of the project, according to the union Unifor Fish, Food and Allied Workers. “Changes in the fishery over a period of more than 30 years could very well affect the predictions made in this assessment that the Project will not have significant adverse effects on commercial fisheries,” writes President Keith Sullivan, in response to CNSA’s call for “comments”.
The Flemish Pass, where the Bay du Nord platform would be built, 450 kilometers off St. John’s, has a rich biodiversity, according to the CNSA report, which could be endangered by drilling, mining, maritime traffic, vibrations or light pollution.