Mr. Speaker, the offshore oil and gas industry is alive and well around the world, from the North Sea off Europe to the coast of Africa, from Cook Inlet in Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, and even on the east coast of Canada, but not in British Columbia.
The recently tabled Royal Society of Canada report to the Minister of Natural Resources concludes there are no scientific gaps to be filled before lifting the moratoria on oil and gas development in British Columbia.
However the senior minister for B.C., Canada's environment minister, is currently forging ahead with a plan to create Scott Island marine wildlife area, an area of up to 2.7 million hectares, which would effectively prohibit oil and gas exploration in much of the Queen Charlotte basin, an area of great exploration potential.
The natural resources minister is supportive of the west coast oil and gas possibilities. Clearly the environment minister is not. It is unacceptable for a divided federal cabinet to waffle on an issue as important as offshore oil and gas development is to the future of British Columbia.