ITK says Inuit oppose oil drilling in Beaufort Sea

The leader of Canada’s Inuit has called for a halt to oil drilling in the country’s Arctic waters.

Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, in an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, called for no more drilling in the Beaufort Delta “in order to take stock of environmental risks and needed risk reduction and mitigation measures.”

But “it applies to any development in the Arctic,” Simon told Nunatsiaq News. “We’ve been talking to some top scientists and they are not very sure how an oil spill could be cleaned up in the Arctic.”

Simon’s May 26 letter calls for environmental protection regulation before such drilling can go ahead, and more Inuit involvement in environmental monitoring and emergency response.

Simon’s concerns sharpened in the toxic wake of the oil still pouring out of the pipe below a British Petroleum oil rig off the Louisianan coast.

The BP spill has dumped millions of litres of crude into the Gulf of Mexico and is now called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

“The dramatic and destructive consequences of the recent rupture to an oil drill in the Gulf of Mexico underscore the environmental risks and engineering challenges associated with offshore oil and gas exploration and production,” Simon told the prime minister.

The BP gusher has continued unabated since April 20 despite constant efforts to seal the breach.

With black tar balls now washing ashore on the U.S.’s fertile Gulf Coast, the spill promises to destroy huge swaths of coastal ecosystem – and the livelihoods of the thousands of U.S. residents who make their living from it such as fishers, shrimpers and tourism operators.

However, the Beaufort Sea is far more remote than the Gulf of Mexico.

Raymond Ningocheak, vice-president of finance for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., told the Senate Standing Committee on Natural Resources the Arctic’s location, lack of infrastructure and environmental conditions would make any such response much more difficult.

“If you appreciate the difficulties of containing and cleaning up oil spills in temperate or tropical waters, you can also appreciate how the presence of sea ice will make any effective response even more difficult,” he said on May 13.

Ningocheak said NTI is still examining the issue to finalize its views.

“NTI is not opposed to development, including oil and gas development and mining,” he told the committee. “It is an important component of our development, but it must occur under reasonable conditions and provide local and regional benefits.”

ITK’s stance mirrors that of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the land claims group of the Inuit of the Western Arctic with jurisdiction over the Beaufort Sea.

IRC CEO Nellie Cornoyea has asked for delaying exploration licences and drilling approvals until government and industry show they can prevent, contain and clean up oil spills, which have all been dramatic failures in the current Gulf of Mexico crisis.

Simon’s letter to the prime minister is on ITK’s website at http://bit.ly/bchoLT.