Environmentalists celebrate surrender of offshore oil permits in B.C.

Environmental groups that have been fighting for the end of offshore oil and gas development in British Columbia are celebrating victoryafter the federal government announced the last remaining permits for Pacific Ocean exploration had voluntarily been surrendered.

Federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan WilkinsonsaidWednesday that Chevron, the last corporation to hold the permits, had voluntarily relinquished them as of Feb. 9.

Jay Ritchlin, the David Suzuki Foundation's director general of B.C., said he welcomed the news.

"I've been working on this for 20 years.... Offshore oil and gas drilling doesn't have a place in the future."

Permits date back to 1960s

Originally issued in the late 1960s and early '70s, permits were grandfathered in through policy reforms that were created to better protect delicate marine ecosystems.

In July 2022, Ecojustice Canada, on behalf of the David Suzuki Foundation and World Wildlife Fund, filed anapplication in Federal Court aiming to extinguish all existing permits, which fell withinthe Scott Islands Protected Marine Areaand the Hecate Strait/Queen Charlotte Sound Glass Sponge ReefsMarine Protected Area.

The environmental groups claimed in court that the indefiniteextensions of the terms of those permits are unlawful and contravenethe Canada Petroleum Resources Act.

"Both protected areas are of outstanding ecological value andvulnerable to damage from human impacts, including oil and gasactivities,'' the court application stated.

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Gregor Craigie spoke with Jay Ritchlin, Director General of BC and the west for the David Suzuki Foundation.

When the rules changed, permit holders like Chevron andExxonMobil were supposed to negotiate with the minister of naturalresources to convert them into exploration licences"within aprescribed time," but "did not do so," the groups claimed.

Those claims were never challenged as permit holders voluntarily surrendered their licences, resulting in the legal challenge being discontinued last year.

Fossil fuels 'a losing bet': Suzuki Foundation

Wilkinson said in an interview with CBC News that his government had made it "pretty clear that we're not interested in seeing oil and gas developments off our coast."

Ritchlin also credited the victory to First Nationsopposed topossible exploration, and said he hoped years of advocacy from groups like his "added some pressure."

And, he said, he hoped it would be a sign of more steps taken to wean Canada off of the extraction of polluting natural resources.

"I think the writing hopefully is clearly on the wall ... these are losing bets if we continue to extract and produce, ship and burn fossil fuels."