By PETER O'NEIL, Vancouver Sun, September 9, 2011
‘Big Oil,’ shipping industry influenced decision, coalition, NDP say
OTTAWA - Environmental groups on Friday accused the federal government of ignoring science and capitulating to pressure from the petroleum industry when it killed a funding agreement to develop a Pacific North Coast oceans management plan.
They said the decision was influenced by the West Coast shipping industry and “big oil,” since both have expressed concern that environmentalists were using the oceans management process to oppose Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.’s $5.5-billion pipeline linking Alberta’s oilsands wealth to tanker ships at Kitimat, B.C.
“It appears to be yet another knee-jerk reaction from the Prime Minister’s Office against fair and collaborative decision-making,” said Kim Wright of the Living Oceans Society.
“They have ignored advice from the federal government’s top scientists and policy-makers, and are instead bowing to pressure from influential lobbyists from the shipping sector.”
The five environmental groups said in their news release that “big oil and international shipping” collaborated to undermine the process, “with Prime Minister Stephen Harper putting industry’s interests before those of the coastal residents of British Columbia.”
The five groups were Living Oceans, the David Suzuki Foundation, Sierra Club B.C., the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the World Wildlife Fund.
They were responding to the government’s decision to walk away from an agreement that would have resulted in a prominent U.S. green trust, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of Palo Alto, Calif., providing $8.3 million in funding that would be managed by the Tides Canada environmental group.
Some senior federal Conservatives have privately expressed concern about allegations from Vancouver researcher Vivian Krause, who has reported extensively on the money spent by U.S. environmentalist-oriented trusts on campaigns in Canada.
The funding was to help the Pacific North Coast Integrated Area Management Initiative complete an integrated management plan in accordance with requirements of the 1996 Oceans Act.
Enbridge Inc. refused Thursday to comment on suggestions that it lobbied the government to halt the financial relationship between the initiative, which includes senior officials from numerous federal departments, and B.C. environmentalists funded by the U.S.-based Moore Foundation.
But the B.C. Chamber of Shipping, in a newsletter this month, said it had raised concerns about a possible anti-shipping bias at the initiative to the “highest levels of government” in Ottawa.
Erin Filliter, spokeswoman for Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield, didn’t respond directly Friday to the allegations in the statement.
The government’s decision was meant to ensure the management plan was completed “on schedule and on budget” by the end of 2012, “and that it results in a management framework that is sustainable and effective in the long term. The new approach is also more transparent.”
A spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which gave Krause a $5,000 honorarium to speak at a luncheon in Calgary next Monday, ridiculed the allegation that “big oil” is pulling the government’s strings.
“The accusation is absolutely not true,” Travis Davies said in an email.
He added, however, that CAPP was troubled by a government process being funded by environmental groups.
“I don’t think this is much different than if industry was paying for the management plan. How much credibility would it have then? Why is it any different when an environmental advocy organization pays? Integrity is the issue here.”
The federal NDP, meanwhile, accused the Harper government of engaging in “political interference” to protect the oil industry’s interests.
“They’re clearly throwing a bone to their oil patch buddies and to Enbridge — trying to help them build a pipeline that nobody wants through one of the most beautiful and ecologically diverse places in Canada,” said MP Nathan Cullen, whose Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding includes Kitimat.
“The government should immediately reverse its decision and come back to the table.”
Poneil@postmedia.com
Twitter:@poneilinottawa
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