INUVIK
Questions were scarce March 30 when the Environmental Impact Review Board (EIRB) held an information session at Ingamo Hall on offshore oil drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

Jon Pierce, the chairperson of the Environmental Impact Review Board, was part of a panel at a public nformation session March 30 at Ingamo Hall. The panel is visiting the Inuvialuit communities in the Beaufort Delta to discuss Imperial Oil's pending application to drill one or two offshore wells in the Beaufort Sea. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

The meeting was one in a series that the EIRB is holding around the Beaufort Delta area in the last week or so in towns and settlements with a heavy Inuvialuit presence.

The EIRB is a partnership between the federal government, the Yukon government, the GNWT and the Inuvialuit. Members are appointed by each partner. It is one of the agencies that reviews project applications, such as for the drilling, and make recommendations on its approval and any changes required.

The meeting at Ingamo Hall was to present information on an application by Imperial Oil and the Beaufort Sea Exploration Joint Venture Drilling Program to possibly drill two exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea, about 175 km northwest of Tuktoyaktuk.

The application is still in the early preliminary stage. No drilling is expected to take place before 2020, and there are still many hurdles to be cleared before then.

Board members presented some information on the project to a sparse audience of perhaps 20 people.

They also presented their draft terms of reference for the project to the audience, which consisted of a lengthy document that would require some time to read and consider.

The drilling would take as long as three seasons to complete, the document indicated, due to the short working season in the Beaufort Sea.

The board is now waiting for Imperial Oil to provide more information and begin the formal process of application. That could come as soon as June or as late as next January.

"The next step is up to Imperial Oil," said environmental review board chairperson Jon Pierce.

Until then, the EIRB is in a holding pattern on the project.

"There's not too much we can do until then," Pierce said.

The EIRB is planning on holding more public meetings on the project in the immediate future to gauge public feedback on the proposed drilling.

"What we're doing right now is setting the terms of reference," Pierce reiterated. "It's early days yet."

One of the handful of questions generated by the audience came from Frank Pokiak, who chairs the Inuvialuit Game Council, which appoints three members to the EIRB. He asked whether any provision had been made for participant funding, which would help allow residents to travel to such meetings to state their opinion without hardship.

Pierce said that no such funding had been made available yet.

After the meeting, Camellia Gray of Inuvik encouraged more people to turn out to the information sessions.

She said she attended the meeting to learn more about the review process, and to "understand more about what happens with our environment.

"I wanted to find out more about the community members' role in this," she said.

Pierce said afterwards he wasn't surprised with the low turnout.

"It's a nice Sunday afternoon," he said.

He stressed more meetings will be held, and hoped participation will improve as more information is revealed.