Industry and much-needed employment appear to have trumped environmental concerns at regional council Tuesday afternoon.
Council agreed to send a strong message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government about diverting jobs from Irving’s Halifax Shipyard.
But they voted against sending a letter to Premier Stephen McNeil and the provincial government to voice opposition to offshore drilling or exploration of oil reserves.
“This is exactly opposite of what was agreed upon 15 years ago,” said Jacques Dube, the municipality’s chief administrative officer. He told council about a prospective letter to Trudeau, which would be copied to all Nova Scotia MPs, voicing the municipality’s opposition to dividing maintenance work on Halifax-class navy ships between the Irving shipyard and Davie Shipbuilding in Quebec.
Coun. Steve Adams (Spryfield-Sambro Loop-Prospect Road) introduced the motion as several shipyard workers sat in the gallery at council chambers Tuesday. Earlier, those workers had joined dozens of their UNIFOR union members as they marched past City Hall chanting “Ships Stay Here.”
Dube played a part in the early shipbuilding negotiations in his then role as New Brunswick’s deputy minister responsible for economic development.
“What we are seeing is not what was agreed to at the time,” said Dube. He said the federal government had agreed to the closure of both the Saint John shipyard in New Brunswick and the Davie yard to concentrate shipbuilding in Halifax and Vancouver. Despite that agreement, the Davie yard was revived.
Coun. Tim Outhit (Bedford-Wentworth) asked during debate if council was opposed to something real or if the hiving off of work to Quebec was simply a proposal.
“This is absolutely not sensational, this is real,” Dube said, accentuating the importance to the province and the municipality of the shipbuilding industry and the supply chain required to support it.
“It is very important that we maintain those jobs.”
Council agreed.
While Mayor Mike Savage, who was out of the country on business and not available for Tuesday’s meeting, has been directed to send a letter to the prime minister in support of Halifax shipbuilding jobs, he will not be required to fire off a similar missive to the province objecting to offshore oil exploration.
That’s despite the best efforts of Coun. Richard Zurawski (Timberlea-Beechville-Clayton Park).
Zurawski’s motion said the reason for opposing offshore oil exploration is the potential for catastrophic spills, that exploration would have a negative effect for decades to come on fisheries and on marine life, especially large mammals like whales.
“We have maybe a decade to make a difference,” said Zurawski, citing the recent dire climate change report released by the United Nations.
“The issue is that we must stop this immediately,” he said of the exploration and development of fossil fuels that are a primary contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. “Fossil fuel use is epitomized by offshore drilling.
“We are not doing well when it comes to climate change. Cities all across Canada are rising to the challenge. If we are going to be able to make a difference for the youth of our city, we have 10 years.”
Coun. Steve Streatch (Waverley-Fall River-Musquodoboit Valley) fell firmly on the other side of the argument.
“Absolutely not,” he said of sending a letter to the province.
More councillors sided with Streatch and the motion was defeated 10-6. That decision will not sit well with the Council of Canadians, a social action group.
“HRM has a stake in what happens in our offshore, and has a responsibility to defend its citizens from the negative impacts of offshore drilling,” said Robin Tress, a member of that group. “HRM clearly has a role in emergency management for offshore issues, as we saw with the recent oil spill in Tufts Cove, and has been an active stakeholder in ocean management processes in the past.”
A leaking pipe at the Nova Scotia Power generating station at Tufts Cove in Dartmouth spilled about 5,000 litres of bunker C fuel into Halifax harbour in August. Nearly two weeks later, the utility announced an additional 9,900 litres had leaked into a containment trench and another 9,400 litres entered the cooling water system of one of its generators.
Another spill occurred offshore 330 kilometres southwest of Halifax in late June. BP Canada, given the OK to drill an exploration well, sustained a spill of 136,000 litres of drilling mud on June 22.
The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board said the spill of drilling mud was caused by a loose connection in the mud booster line on board the West Aquarius rig. The regulatory board allowed the company to resume drilling a month later.
Tress said that six other Nova Scotia municipalities are already calling for greater scrutiny on offshore drilling, three of which have called for a moratorium and a public inquiry.
“HRM has been called upon by young people to commit to real climate action by reducing the city’s emissions to net zero by 2040,” Tress said. “Opposing continued offshore exploration would be in line with this commitment to climate action.”
