A Vancouver-based environmental advocacy group is calling on the B.C. government to release drafts of a report on offshore oil and gas development.

West Coast Environmental Law has filed a Freedom of Information application with the province’s privacy commissioner to see drafts of a scientific report completed by the B.C. government.

Karen Campbell, an oil and gas lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, said her group applied to see the drafts after the province delayed releasing a scientific report on oil and gas development conducted two years ago.

“Our position is that those drafts, even though they were prepared by a consultant, are in fact used in government policy and are relevant – and we should be able to have copies of those drafts,” said Campbell. “They have resisted giving us copies of those drafts, so we’ve taken them to a full review.”

Campbell said she suspects that the final report might be “more conducive” than the drafts to lifting a provincial moratorium on B.C. offshore oil and gas development, which has been in place since the early 1970s.

The privacy commissioner’s review is based on written arguments by both sides. Campbell said a decision is expected within two months.

Meanwhile, First Nations and other interested parties are anxiously awaiting a federal report on B.C. offshore oil and gas. The report will recommend whether to lift a federal moratorium that has been in place since 1972.

B.C.’s lifting of its moratorium is widely considered a fait accompli if Ottawa ends the federal ban.

Chris Campbell, a vice-chairman of Ocean Industries B.C., a new group born from a merger of the Pacific Coast Offshore Energy Association and the Pacific Coast Offshore Oil and Gas Association, said opponents’ biggest concern is a major oil spill similar to the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.

But he noted a study by the U.S. Minerals Management Service for the State of Alaska shows a progressive decline in the risk of spills throughout the history of the industry. Offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico also withstood the recent Hurricane Ivan.

Environmentalists are also concerned about the effects of underwater seismic activity, which involves releasing sonic charges, on fish, whales and other species. But Chris Campbell defended its use.

“In the rhetoric or discussion around offshore oil, particularly today, seismic is awful,” he said. “Well, there’s a lot of seismic that’s gone on all over the world, in many prime fishing areas. The reason that seismic has been under such focus is because if we don’t do seismic, we don’t do anything.”

He added Ottawa should simply start the process. Publicly, producers have taken a wait-and-see approach on B.C. offshore development, and instead have focused on Alberta’s oilsands – contending they can’t do anything on the West Coast until they know what fiscal and regulatory regimes will be in place.

Government should spend two years setting up the fiscal and regulatory regimes and the rules on what producers can and cannot do, and then let industry come in and do preliminary work, Campbell added.

Offshore boosters base their arguments on a February report by the Royal Society of Canada which states that, provided an adequate regulatory regime is in place, there are no so-called “science gaps” that prevent the lifting of the moratoria. But the authors noted that they were referring only to the Queen Charlotte Basin (one of four in the region). They say more data are needed on currents, winds and waves, as well as high-resolution ocean-floor mapping and a study on the geographic and temporal distribution of ecologically-sensitive species.

Tony Fogarassy, a Vancouver energy lawyer with Clark, Wilson, agreed “all roads lead to Ottawa.”

He predicted the decision on whether to lift the moratorium will be postponed as long as Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal minority government is in power.

Shell and Chevron have B.C. offshore sub-surface rights dating back to the 1970s. But, said Fogarassy, they are not driving the agenda and do not want to “tip the balance.”

Two major court cases, both involving the Haida First Nation of the Queen Charlotte Islands, also play a role in the decision. The first involves a Haida land claim, which Fogarassy believes will be the seminal case on aboriginal rights relating to offshore oil and gas.

The other case, being reviewed by the Supreme Court, involves a logging dispute between the Haida and forestry company Weyerhaeuser. It reached the Supreme Court after lower courts ruled that Weyerhaeuser was legally obligated to consult the Haida but did not.

“It won’t be the status quo,” said Fogarassy. “Either there’ll be more obligations placed on industry, or (the court will say to) government: ‘No, it’s your job. It’s not for the oilpatch to go out and deal directly with First Nations and consult and accommodate them, if it’s compensation or various forms of dealings with First Nations’ . . .

“That’s a pretty big obligation – and not to be taken lightly.”

John Hunter, a North Vancouver-based offshore oil and gas consultant, said Ocean Industries B.C. wants to present an objective view.

“We’re not pushing the cause,” said Hunter, who is a member of the new organization. “The organization supports the responsible development of offshore.”

If seismic and other testing discovers “a fatal flaw,” then industry should walk away, said Hunter, an engineer by profession. “The fact is, lifting the moratorium starts the process – that’s all it does,” said Hunter.

He said setting the record straight on B.C. offshore oil and gas development has become a personal crusade. During a recent seminar on offshore development before the Vancouver Board of Trade, Hunter accused opponents of painting a bleaker picture than the one that really exists.

“They talk about the downside, but they forget about the tremendous upside,” Hunter said in an interview.

He added the revenue that the provincial government gets from B.C. offshore oil and gas development will help pay for major projects such as rapid transit in Vancouver and doctors and dentists in smaller communities. Offshore activity will also create thousands of jobs, boost tourism and spur the development of other industries.

But Arthur Manuel, a spokesman for the B.C.- based Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, said people who tout the economic benefits are not looking at the whole picture. They’re only looking at economic growth and their own market forces rather than sustainability, he added.

It’s time to re-assess the economic model and ensure that resources last, said Manuel. “Five hundred years ago, the reason why the present economic model took off so well is that we believed in sustainability,” he said.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)