Federal review panel a waste of time, energy and money.

VICTORIA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) responded today to the federal government's advisory public review panel, known as the Priddle Panel. "The CTF is disappointed with the findings of the Priddle Panel. The report did not reach any conclusion on whether or not to lift the federal moratorium on offshore oil and gas activity for the Queen Charlotte Area," stated BC director Sara MacIntyre.

"BC is no further ahead today with this report than yesterday. It is entirely quantitative and does not provide any critical assessment of qualitative analysis of the issues surrounding offshore oil and gas exploration. The panelists decided to simply perform a headcount of submissions, weighting the provincial government's position the same as an email response." MacIntyre added, "We could have saved ourselves a lot of money and effort and commissioned a scientific public opinion poll that would have provided a more accurate reflection of the views of all British Columbians."

The Priddle Panel was appointed by the federal minister of natural resources with a two-fold advisory mandate: (1) to hear the views of the public regarding whether or not the federal moratorium should be lifted for selected areas, and (2) to examine the broad environmental and socio-economic impacts of lifting the moratorium. This past spring the Panel held hearings across British Columbia and accepted written submissions from interested participants. The CTF submitted its recommendation to the panel on May 1, 2004. The submission can be downloaded off the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's website at: www.taxpayer.com.

"The report's weighting system artificially inflates and polarizes the views of the participants. Despite the panel's findings, there is a strong degree of consensus in BC that we should begin offshore oil and gas exploration. A public opinion poll conducted in 2003 notes that 60 per cent of British Columbians support offshore exploration activities." MacIntyre further noted, "The east coast has benefited from their offshore industry for years with the federal government's approval and encouragement. In fact, just this May the federal government invoked a five year moratorium on duties to increase offshore drilling in Atlantic Canada and issued new exploration permits for the Laurentian sub-basin. Yet, out here in BC, the federal government won't even allow us to see how much oil and gas is off our coast, and whether or not it's commercially viable. It is the highest form of hypocrisy, even for this federal government," concluded MacIntyre.