OTTAWA -- Despite the presence of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell in Ottawa pressing for it to be lifted, Environment Minister David Anderson says a long and costly analysis will be required before there is any decision on lifting the moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the Queen Charlotte Islands.
But the federal minister from B.C. would not offer an opinion on whether the West Coast moratorium should be lifted.
"I've always said the moratorium served a useful purpose and if it is to be lifted then it must be clear that potential benefits outweigh potential risks -- so we'll see," he said yesterday.
"We haven't done that analysis. It would be very expensive and take a lot of hard work."
He agreed such an analysis would take a long time to complete, but gave no time estimate.
As a federal assistant deputy minister, Anderson was instrumental in establishing the 1972 moratorium and environmentalists have looked to him for support in maintaining it.
But Campbell is pushing to have the moratorium lifted, partly to offset economic fallout from the softwood lumber dispute.
Campbell appointed a scientific panel to study offshore exploration but has declined to make the panel's report public.
The premier met late Monday with Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal -- B.C.'s senior cabinet minister -- to discuss both offshore drilling and the softwood lumber dispute.
Following the meeting, Campbell said that the B.C. and federal government may do a single joint environmental assessment for the possible lifting of the offshore moratorium.
He's also hoping to have a federal-provincial agreement on assisting workers and communities impacted by the softwood dispute ready for an announcement within several weeks.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Lash of the Living Oceans Alliance, a coalition of B.C. environmental and citizens' groups, called on Anderson to strengthen the moratorium.
A 1998 Geological Survey report said B.C.'s offshore may hold 9.8 million barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic meters of natural gas -- 10 times as much as Newfoundland's off-shore Hibernia field.
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