TUKTOYAKTUK
With offshore oil and gas drilling projects projected to begin in the Canadian Beaufort Sea within the next decade, communities want to be prepared for oil spills, says Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Merven Gruben.
That means potentially training community members and making sure specialized equipment is on hand, Gruben said.
"We're going to need a lot of booms and skimmers and all that kind of stuff here," he said.
Because there are currently no active offshore drilling projects, the Canadian Coast Guard only has minimal equipment in Beaufort Delta communities, according to a report released by the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment's (BREA) oil spill preparedness and response working group in February.
BREA was formed in 2010 to study the impacts of offshore oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort Sea.
When hydrocarbon exploration was at its peak from the 1970s to the 1990s, the region had its own oil spill response team, titled the Beaufort Sea Oil Spill Cooperative.
It was disbanded when exploration activities tapered off in the 1990s.
Gruben said now that the region is getting attention again, he wants to see a similar team in place.
While projects aren't anticipated to begin until at least 2018, the federal and territorial governments and communities are looking at the region's capability to respond to potential spills, he said.
"This is where all the action is going to be happening out of," he said. "We want something that's going to be ready 24/7, every day of the year."
While Gruben said offshore drilling could still be many years away, communities want to ensure there is a spill response system in place before any development begins.
Gruben also said training people from the area to respond to oil spills has immediate benefits as well.
"There is really no oil spill response team right now and yet we still also get a lot of oil and gas barge traffic up the Mackenzie River and then points east and points west," he said. "Even if one of those barges had a leak, we still don't have anything capable to clean that up. So, the sooner the better."
He said an increase in traffic in the Northwest Passage also highlights the need for local responders.
In February, BREA's oil spill preparedness and response working group published a consultant's report on the region's oil spill response capabilities.
The working group, which includes representatives from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment Canada, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Inuvialuit Game Council and the territorial Department of Environment and Natural Resources, held workshops throughout the region last year.
John Korec, a conservation officer with the National Energy Board (NEB) and the co-chair for the BREA oil spill preparedness and response working group, said companies are responsible for ensuring they have plans in place in case of a spill. The plans are reviewed and analyzed by the NEB.
"The companies have to demonstrate to the NEB that they have the capacity to respond and we will evaluate and test that," he said.
But, locals could be trained to assist with oil spill response, Korec said.
"The trained people in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region would be supplemental to what the company needs and provides," he said. "The intent is not to have a complete response capability based in the ISR, but at least to supplement whatever the companies may need."
The report stated that industry representatives and the Inuvialuit agreed the Inuvialuit should partially or completely own any oil spill response company developed for the region.
The report also recommended an Inuvialuit advisory board, which would help co-ordinate response efforts and provide advice.
Korec said developing the role of Inuvialuit will also build a framework for training.
"If these things are in place, then it will make it that much easier and sustainable to deliver that kind of a training program," he said.
There is also the potential for a trained team to partner with similar organizations in Alaska in the event of a spill in either the Canadian or United States side of the Beaufort Sea, he added.
That training could take place at the Aurora Campus of Aurora College in Inuvik, Korec said.
Doug Robertson, director of the Aurora Campus, said the college supports the idea.
"Our mandate, of course, is to respond to education and training needs in the region," he said.
Robertson said, while it's too early to tell what the program's curriculum might look like, he believes developing a training program for people living in the region is vital.
"If there is going to be offshore, near-shore or even onshore exploration, then it's really imperative there is some trained, local response to emergencies," he said.
He also said further discussions will take place during the upcoming Inuvik Petroleum Show in June.
Gruben said he hopes Tuktoyaktuk will become a hub for oil spill response in the region.
Korec said the report's recommendations have been sent to groups, such as AANDC and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, to determine next steps, which he said will be developing over the next few months.
