Natural Resources Committee on June 15th, 2010

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

You do?

[Mimi Fortier]

I will tell you that. Under the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act, it is not cost-shared. The industry does not pay for the NEB's regulation.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

The NEB has received 90% of its funding from industry for operational costs. I'm surprised that folks at this table don't know that.

The second question is—

[Mark Corey]

We would like to answer that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Cullen, we have a couple of people who want to comment on that.

[Eric Landry]

It's for its responsibilities under the NEB Act; and Mimi just pointed out that under its responsibilities under COGOA, which applies to offshore oil and gas, the NEB does not recover from the private sector.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Who's the lead agency on the Beaufort regional environmental assessment?

[Mimi Fortier]

INAC is coordinating that.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Do you have funding for it?

[Mimi Fortier]

We had some limited funding. We started a workshop on cumulative effects with the University of Saskatchewan and we've given funding to the Inuvialuit for socio-economic indicators.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

What's strange to me is that all groups—the industry, Inuvialuit, and the federal government—have supported this, yet it was absent in the 2010 federal budget in terms of funding.

It seems strange to me and a bit incongruous that with such limited boom capacity and spill response capacity we've been issuing leases into the Arctic with no knowledge or any ability to actually clean up a spill such as happened in the BP Horizon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Cullen, your time is actually up.

Point of order, Mr. Anderson.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

It is a point of clarification.

He mentioned limited boom capacity, but I understood earlier that we have 90 kilometres of it in this country.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

That's really not a point of order, Mr. Anderson, but we will go now for maybe two to three minutes to Mr. Regan.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I gather it's six kilometres or 6,300 metres of offshore and 85,000 metres of shoreline boom. That is my understanding. That isn't my question, but you can correct me if I'm wrong or if I'm way off.

There's an interesting report called the Orphan Basin exploration drilling program environmental assessment, which indicates that even if response organizations were perfectly prepared for a major spill and well trained and outfitted, there are still real limitations in terms of how much oil you could actually deal with at sea, particularly in the North Atlantic. Of course we're all aware that the conditions there can be pretty heavy seas.

First of all, do you agree that for any major offshore spill there are certain limitations to response and cleanup?

I guess my questions are for Mr. Bowden and Mr. Brown.

[Ron Bowden]

Of course there are limitations. There's a whole chain of logistics, of course. There's containment, which is of course the first priority. Then there is recuperation of your spilled oil and then that must be stored and transported. The logistical chain is quite large. Especially in the event of the BP Deepwater Horizon, as I mentioned, it's quite overwhelming.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I guess I'll go to Mr. Brown on this. My understanding is that in the event of a spill in the Orphan Basin, only a small percentage, estimated at between 2% and 12%, would be likely to be recaptured. In fact, if you're in winter it's more the 2% number, in view of the conditions you have there in winter. Is that accurate? Is that your understanding?

[Dr. Carl Brown]

I can't comment. I haven't seen the report you're referring to.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Perhaps Mr. Corey is able to comment on this.

[Eric Landry]

It's something the Offshore Petroleum Board would be able to comment on.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

So you don't have any idea of the answer to that question. Nobody here can tell us the answer to that question.

[Mark Corey]

Mr. Chair, could we have the question again? I'm not sure that I followed the whole thing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Yes.

Mr. Regan, could you ask the question again? It will be your last question.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Okay.

Is it true that only a small percentage can be captured at sea in places like the Orphan Basin, off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and Labrador? The estimate is that only a small percentage, between 2% and 12% of oil spilled, could be retrieved under typical wind and wave conditions, the 2% figure being the one in the typical winter conditions.

[Eric Landry]

In terms of being able to comment on that, I guess those are based on studies that Chevron has indicated, and if that's the report that it did submit to the offshore board, then yes, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on Chevron's--