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Calling for an oil-free coast
Kamloops This Week, November 25, 2005
By MIKELLE SASAKAMOOSE
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TRU students Sara Boon, Jasmin Wright and Adria Tillen join protestors along Victoria Street in support of the National Day to Maintain the Moratorium on oil and gas development off the Pacific Coast. |
Wednesday was a "day of action" in Canada designed to encourage the federal government to ban off-shore oil and gas development in B.C. and maintain a 1971 moratorium on oil and gas exploration off the B.C. coast.
In Kamloops, a group of Thompson Rivers University students and a small number of non-university citizens participated in the nation-wide action campaign to maintain an oil-free Pacific Coast.
A leaflet distributed by activists claims that "Premier Gordon Campbell, Minister of Energy and Mines Richard Neufeld and the B.C. Liberal provincial government started the process to lift the moratorium in 2001 when they were elected."
The leaflet adds that Campbell has been lobbying the federal government to lift the moratorium because "he doesn't want to look like a rogue provincial government" by unilaterally lifting the provincial moratorium.
Event organizer and third-year TRU geography major Ian Hart said the purpose of the rally and march was to bring awareness to the issue.
"Because the benefits are going to be smaller than people expect and the risks are very high," he said.
Basing his argument on a variety of studies and scientific research, Hart said offshore oil and gas development on the West Coast could be devastating, not only for the environment, but for the B.C. economy as well.
"Drilling can result in 50 per cent lower fishing returns," he said, adding that spills on the West Coast, unlike mishaps on the Atlantic Coast, will be carried toward the coastline by the current.
"Wild fisheries employ 16,000 people in B.C. and bring in a gross revenue of over $300 million," the leaflet states.
"The sports fishery also generates over $300 million annually in B.C."
Activists are suggesting that government instead invest in alternative sources of energy, such as wind, geothermal and bio-diesel.
Wednesday's "day of action" fell on the one-year anniversary of the release of the results of the Priddle Process, a federal public input process that revealed 75 per cent of respondents support the moratorium.
A petition asking the federal government to enact a legislated ban on coastal oil and gas development in B.C. was circulated at the rally and will be sent to Ottawa.
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