Approve Bay du Nord - Newfoundland and Labrador's Future Depends on it

Do not make this decision political - follow the legislated process and do not add additional uknown risk to an already thorough and respected approval and assessment process that will unfortunately paint this country as closed for buisness, unprofessional and without ability to understand requirements of essential energy supply. With the very real potential that the Bay du Nord project could contain nearly one billion barrels of recoverable energy resources in one of most environmentally efficient operations on the planet, we can safely predict that the project could bring an estimated $25 billion in direct government benefit in tax and royalties and millions in person years of work to the economy of Canada and to the sustainability of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Bay du Nord is and ABATED energy project that will have some of the lowest emissions ever seen on an oil and gas platform on the planet.  This is exactly what the purpose of the COP 26 committments are - to avoid any new investments in non-abated oil and gas projects that do not consider emission reduction.  Canada can be a leader in supporting ESG energy transformation!

The environmental assessment process that commenced in 2018 was to be concluded on December 6, 2021, but project proponents were informed that the Minister of Environment and Climate Change had at that time extended the time limit for his decisions on the Bay du Nord Development project by 90 days to take into account the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada's Environmental Assessment Report - an unforeseeable risk to this process that was not part of the legislated and regulatory process. Already this action may have had grave and cascading negative consequences to investments in Newfoundland and Labrador’s energy economy, and by extension, Canada – including investments in emission reduction technologies and pathways that require significant partnerships within the energy industry and with government.

We need to understand and recognize that the exploration, development and production of Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil and gas resources can address the future global supply gaps in an increasing competitive ESG investment ecosystem while also supporting the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions achieve climate goals committed to by our federal government. 

We have already seen how operators are planning in efforts to reducing their energy consumption and emissions through significant investments in emissions reduction research, technology advancements, equipment replacement, preventative maintenance, and operational efficiencies.