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Quebec First Nations vow to keep fighting as oil project is suspended

A project to explore the Gulf of St. Lawrence for oil was suspended Monday but First Nations who depend on the gulf's fisheries say the fight to protect them is just beginning.

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A project to explore the Gulf of St. Lawrence for oil was suspended Monday, but First Nations who depend on the gulf’s fisheries say the fight to protect them is just beginning.

Corridor Resources announced that after months of seismic testing on the Old Harry site in the waters between Quebec and Newfoundland, it would not continue without a partner to help fund further research.

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The announcement took aim at the provincial government for its slow and “uncertain” regulatory process.

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But Corridor is also lobbying the federal government to renew its exploration licence in Newfoundland and clarify the status of its Quebec licence. The Innu villages along Quebec’s rocky eastern coastline have led a legal campaign against drilling in the gulf for years.

“We won the battle, but the war rages on,” said Ian Tremblay, the director of fisheries for Uapan.

Uapan is an Innu-run fishing co-op that represents about 200 fishermen and 350 workers in the fisheries industry. Tremblay says the gulf is an “economic life force” that has sustained the Innu for millennia.

Shrimping boats line the docks in villages like Natashquan and La Romaine. The Atlantic salmon that migrate to these communities to spawn each year pass through the gulf.

“The gulf is our breadbasket,” Tremblay said. “Naturally, we see drilling as a major threat to our way of life. But beyond just us, fisheries are a massive industry in the Maritimes and the government needs to recognize that.”

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Biologist Sylvain Archambault says several factors make the Old Harry site problematic for marine life. The use of sound waves for seismic testing can be disorienting to whales, lobster, crab and fish populations.

“Whales use the ocean floor to navigate, but when it’s being bombarded with the extreme sounds, that throws their whole world into chaos,” said Archambault, who works with SNAP Quebec.

He says the site is too close to the Quebec and Newfoundland coastlines. Old Harry is about 80 kilometres northeast of the Magdelan Islands.

“If they were drilling 400 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland and there was a spill, the current would carry it out to sea,” Archambault said. “But this is smack dab in the middle of the gulf. The currents would send the oil spinning in a circle that hits Newfoundland, Cape Breton, the Magdalen Islands.

“It’s like when you pull the plug on your bathtub and the water keeps spinning toward the drain.”

Corridor conducted an environmental assessment of the Old Harry project in 2013. In an April letter to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, Corridor CEO Steve Moran pledged to re-evaluate the project’s impact on local marine life and at-risk species.

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In the letter dated April 2, Moran wrote that a new assessment will be ready by the end of summer. He also said the company would initiate and pay for consultations with local First Nations.

Monday’s announcement appears to have put those plans on hold. The company said that while it’s pulling back on the Old Harry project, it would expand its exploration activities in New Brunswick.

Though Quebec signed a 2011 agreement with the federal government to share potential revenues from the project, the province hasn’t passed legislation to regulate drilling in the gulf. Roughly two-thirds of the 43,000-acre Old Harry site lies within Quebec’s borders.

While Corridor may find a better working relationship with the government of New Brunswick, it could encounter resistance from the Mi’gmaq nations.

“The way we see it, water has no borders. It isn’t Quebec water or New Brunswick water, it’s just water,” said Tanya Barnaby, executive director of the Mi’gmawei Mawiomi Secretariat. “As Mi’gmaq, our life revolves around the cycles of the ocean. We still live off what the water brings us.”

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The secretariat represents about 7,000 Mi’gmaq in three communities along the Gaspé Peninsula. Fishing and hunting are a major food source and an economic driver in the region.

Barnaby said that while she was glad to see the Old Harry project stalled, her group will continue to fight offshore drilling.

“I heard an elder say something that stuck with me,” Barnaby said. “He said, ‘If our water isn’t safe, are we still Mi’gmaq? If we can’t live off the land, are we still Mi’gmaq?’ ”

ccurtis@postmedia.com

twitter.com/titocurtis

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