Seismic companies postpone Nunavut blasting plan for a third time

Former Clyde River Mayor Jerry Natanine, faces the Supreme Court of Canada, and a line of photographers, before the court heard his historic rights case in November 2016. (FILE PHOTO)

Baffin Inuit will have at least one more summer free of offshore seismic blasting.

A consortium of companies that is currently permitted to begin a five-year seismic testing program for seabed hydrocarbons in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait has decided to call off any plans to begin during this summer’s open water season.

Nader Hasan, lawyer for Jerry Natanine, the Hamlet of Clyde River and the Nammautuq Hunters and Trappers Organization, said March 3 that he had contacted the consortium’s lawyers requesting that they suspend plans again this year while awaiting a decision on seismic testing from the Supreme Court of Canada.

Had the consortium not postponed their plans, Hasan would have had to request a motion from the Supreme Court for “interim relief,” meaning a temporary injunction, Hasan said in correspondence with Nunatsiaq News.

This is the third time the consortium has postponed its plans as legal action wound its way from the Federal Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court in November 2016.

The Clyde River-based opponents to seismic testing in their waters say the consultation process, leading up to the National Energy Board’s approval of the project in 2014, was flawed because it didn’t not respect their Aboriginal rights.

They also fear seismic testing—which involves analyzing the echo of underwater explosions for the purpose of identifying potential oil and gas reserves under the sea floor—will frighten and disorient fish and sea mammals upon which the community relies for food.

The company argues their consultation was sound, well within Canada’s current legal and procedural framework and that the science on whether seismic blasting impacts sea life is inconclusive.

Clyde River has found some high profile supporters from Hollywood actors to international organizations such as Greenpeace which opposes Arctic oil drilling and which has been helping Inuit seismic opponents pay their legal bills and publicize their fight.

Natanine, who set aside a long-standing hatred for Greenpeace and its anti-sealing movement in the 1970s and 1980s and accepted their help, spoke through the organization in a news release March 3.

“We welcome one more year of relief,” Natanine said, “but we also feel that decisions about our very survival should not rest on the whim of oil exploration companies who seek to profit at our expense.

“We cannot wait year in and year out with an axe over our heads wondering if we will be able to feed our families and maintain our way of life. Our community and all Indigenous communities deserve certainty that our rights are truly protected.”

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association also weighed in on the news in an emailed statement March 3.

“With the Supreme Court of Canada decision still pending on this matter, in our view, any other decision by the consortium would have been irresponsible,” QIA said.

“To avoid oil exploration activity becoming an annual concern for Inuit, QIA hopes that the Supreme Court of Canada will soon render a decision in favour of Inuit. In QIA’s view, there is an urgent need for the Supreme Court of Canada to clarify or even change the law when it comes to the proper standards for consultation with Inuit that must be respected by such industry groups.”