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December 4, 1997
(Environment and Labour)


The following statement was issued today by Oliver Langdon, Minister of Environment and Labour. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

Yesterday the opposition member for St. John's South stood before the House of Assembly and implied in his questions to government that there were inadequate measures in place to address the potential for an environmental emergency, such as an oil spill, that might occur as a result of offshore oil production activity. The impression created yesterday by the Honourable Member was that other provinces that do not have an oil industry are further ahead in terms of oil spill prevention and response. We believe that these statements will unfairly cause concern: the people of this province need to know that there is in fact a great deal of planning and equipment in place in the province.

I rise today to provide Honourable Members with accurate information and a clear understanding of the measures that are currently in place to deal with the potential for oil spills off the coast of this province. The level of planning, training and equipment is so extensive that I can only give examples in the short time I have today.

The province has been active in oil spill response over the past 20 years. More recently, since the 1970s, there has been a major effort on the part of the federal and provincial government and on the part of the offshore oil industry to ensure all the right measures are in place to prevent oil spills in the first instance through regulation and education, and secondly, to be able to respond immediately and effectively with clean-up operations.

Operators of offshore production installations are required by regulations administered by the Canada-Newfoundland Petroleum Board under the Atlantic Accord Implementation Acts to have contingency plans for emergency situations, including oil spills. As well, operators are required to ensure that personnel are properly trained in their response duties, and are obliged to conduct annually a formal spill countermeasures exercise. In the event of a spill, the board is the lead government agency for ensuring the responsible company takes appropriate action.

Government and the oil companies have made this matter a major priority and have contributed many years of planning and resources to ensuring they are prepared to respond safely and effectively to an oil spill off our coast.

Hibernia Management Development Corporation (HMDC) for example, has ensured that their two new platform support vessels are spill recovery class and capable of operating as independent oil spill response units. Oil spill response equipment is held on board the platform for immediate deployment. As well, of course, the Hibernia tankers are double hulled.

All vessels operating in Canadian waters and marine oil handling facilities are required to have approved oil spill response plans in place under the Canada Shipping Act as administered by the Canadian Coast Guard.

As a result of this, Eastern Canada Response Corporation (ECRC) was established, funded by the shipping and marine oil handling facilities owners. In Newfoundland alone, the corporation has invested between $8 million and $9 million in response equipment. This includes five miles of oil containment boom, a large number of skimmers, 15 dedicated vessels and several barges, as well as necessary support equipment such as a mobile operation centre and a stand alone communication system. ECRC has 120 trained personnel located throughout the province with four full time senior staff located in St. John's at the main depot. ECRC is capable of responding to a spill of up to 10,000 tonnes of oil with all equipment on site within 72 hours. Additional people and equipment can be deployed from the sister company, the Great Lakes Response Corp.

ECRC is continually training and upgrading. Indeed, the spill cooperatives are holding their 6th Annual Meeting here in St. John's today as we speak. The ECRC has participated in many public information sessions and has had an open house and provides tours on request. ECRC will be inviting the Honourable Member from St. John's South to tour the facility and see the equipment on site.

Canadian Coast Guard itself maintains a greater than 10,000 tonne oil spill response capability. Four of the 14 Coast Guard vessels have been retrofitted to operate offshore response equipment and 300 Coast Guard officers and crew have received oil spill response training. Coast Guard maintains oil spill response equipment at St, John's, Stephenville, Come by Chance, Burin, Burgeo, St. Anthony, Goose Bay and Twillingate.

In addition, Coast Guard has an air surveillance program for marine pollution: the effectiveness of this was recently demonstrated when a vessel was sighted nearby an oil slick and subsequently detained by Coast Guard in St. John's.

In all of this, the provincial government has been, and will continue to be a active player in effective oil spill response for eastern Canada.

1997 12 04 2:50 p.m.

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