Economic catastrophe for Newfoundland and Labrador

The oil and gas industry is THE economic base for the NL economy. Make no mistake about it. The rejection of this project will spell the beginning of the end of the NL economy. And for what? To make the rest of Canada feel good about themselves. To serve some political agenda? You have to be naive to think that halting this project will have any effect on global oil demand. The world uses almost 100 million bbls of oil per day. Even at thehigh-range estimates, Bay du Nord's reserves represent about 10-12 days of global consumption. If that oil is not provided from here, rest assured it will come from somewhere else and I am pretty confident that it will not be developed as responsibly as Equinor plans to do. As we transition to emission-free energy, we should be embracing companies like Equinor, welcoming their investment and reinvesting the taxes and royalties from that into renewable energy projects. The uncertainty caused since the first delay in December has already had detrimental effects on the industry in NL and indeed, the whole economy.

The notion that the Government of Canada is actually contemplating destroying an industry that represents about 30% of a province's GDP is mind boggling. I guarantee that no other province would stand for it. Almost 60 years ago (for context, there were large parts of the province that did not even have electricity at that time) when then Premier Joey Smallwood met with Lester Pearson to ask about getting a power corridor through Quebec for Churchill Falls power, Smallwood quoted Pearson.

"Joe, I know what you're here to ask me, but I'm asking you not to ask me because if you ask me, I will have to say yes or WE'RE NOT A COUNTRY (emphasis added). If I say yes, I can't guarantee that the towers will stay up".

Joey didn't ask. We are still waiting for appropriate compensation for our contribution to national unity back then. Killing our oil and gas industry now is not the type of compensation I was expecting.

So please, remove the politics from the decision, consider the far-reaching effects on the economy of NL and approve the EA for the Bay dy Nord Project.