Liberals adopt policy on fracking
Resolution from Western Arctic party members overwhelmingly passed at Montreal convention
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 10, 2014
MONTREAL
A resolution on hydraulic fracturing - better known as fracking - from the Western Arctic Liberal Association was officially adopted on Feb. 22 at the party's national policy convention in Montreal.
The resolution proposes a national strategic environmental assessment of fracking that will consider and mitigate the negative environmental effects of the practice. It also seeks to streamline environmental assessments for such projects.
The NWT resolution received overwhelming support with 2,478 delegates voting in favour and only 36 against.
"The support was great," said Chuck Blyth, a party member from Fort Simpson who spoke on the convention floor for the resolution he helped to create.
"Our resolution isn't about being for or against fracking," he said. "It's about giving it a proper strategic environmental assessment, which would allow us to look at it across the country, co-ordinate what the provinces think and what the private sector thinks, balance the environment versus the economy, and all that kind of thing."
Blyth, who works as an environmental consultant, added a national strategic environmental assessment on fracking would help smaller communities when dealing with major corporations, and would offer industry some certainty on what it could expect if proposing a fracking operation.
Kieron Testart, president of the Western Arctic Liberal Association, said fracking has become a divisive issue across the country, noting the resolution suggests a mechanism to deliver certainty on the issue.
"We believe in evidence-based policy and right now people are dealing with fracking without any evidence," Testart noted. "We don't know all the details of industrial processes that are used in fracking, so it's unclear exactly what the consequences are on the environment. It's not fine to just condemn the process which you don't fully understand."
Fracking involves the process of injecting high-pressure water mixed with chemicals into subsurface shale rock to extract natural gas.
It has become a controversial practice in certain parts of Canada and the United States, and some people accuse it of contaminating water tables with dangerous and toxic chemicals.
In October, ConocoPhillips Canada Resources was approved to begin fracking in the Sahtu.
Testart noted the resolution that was passed at the Liberal convention now becomes part of official party policy.
"Now how do we move forward from here?" he said. "We elect Justin Trudeau as prime minister and a new Liberal government."
Testart also said the riding association would expect the party's candidate in Western Arctic in the next federal election to champion the issue and continue the work that has been started.
The Western Arctic Liberal Association also proposed a second resolution at the national convention.
It called for a strengthening of the complaints process within the RCMP, and it was also approved.
The resolution was prepared in association
with Judy Sgro, a Liberal MP from Toronto.
