Feds urged to move on health and safety
How did the drafting of permanent offshore health and safety regulations go off the federal bureaucratic rails for years?
Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’regan told the webcast House of Commons standing committee on natural resources Monday they’re complicated and couldn’t be crafted at the snap of the fingers, but he also faulted an institutional bias — the Ottawa mentality.
He told the committee of attending an oil conference in Houston, Texas, early in his career as an MP and hearing Natural Resources Canada’s opening remarks mention the great oil-producing provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“There was an awkward pause as every Newfoundlander and Labradorian in the room waited for their province to be recognized as an oil-producing province and they were not,” O’regan said, adding that by the time he arrived as the department’s minister, the lesson had been learned.
The federal government was tasked with creating new offshore health and safety regulations six years ago after temporary ones were put in place following the Offshore Helicopter Inquiry into the Cougar Crash.
O’regan acknowledged the time lag.
“I know some members are ready to scream and shout failure over these delays and frustration. I will tell you it is warranted and shared. I am frustrated,” he said.
But O’regan noted the regulations are 300 pages long and encompass 173 domestic and international standards.
Calgary Centre Conservative MP Greg Mclean pointed out it has been more than six years since transitional regulations were put in place and the government has failed.
He also said there have been 27 sitting days between first and second reading in the House of Commons for Bill S-3, which was passed by the Senate in February and seeks to shorten another request for a further delay to one year as opposed to the two years requested by department officials.
Mclean said the Opposition has been co-operative on the urgency of the bill.
“Get these workers protected, we were saying,” he said.
“Yet it waited in the lineup to get on the House of Commons agenda.”
“I don’t know if I’m capable of wading into minutiae that goes on behind the scenes and the tos-and-fros on what we get on a government agenda,” O’regan replied to Mclean’s request for an explanation.
He said a number of things — from elections to the COVID-19 pandemic — have added to the snag, but it’s important to the federal Liberal government.
O’regan has come under fire by Newfoundland and Labrador Senator David Wells for the fact the transitional regulations were allowed to lapse at the end of 2020.
SENATOR NOT BUYING IT
Wells watched the hearing and said O’regan has been at the cabinet table for more than six years as Newfoundland and Labrador’s representative.
“To say there is an (institutional) bias, he is also culpable for carrying that bias,” Wells told The Telegram later Monday.
Wells said it’s unacceptable that O’regan, as Natural Resources minister, went along with officials’ request for another two-year delay on the permanent regulations, which is disrespectful to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and the hardworking offshore workers. During the committee meeting, O’regan defended the federal Liberals’ record on the issue.
“It is misleading to say this government doesn’t care about workers. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are my neighbours. These are the people who built the province and what it is. Workers are at the heart of everything we do here,” O’regan said.
“We’re finalizing a worldclass safety regime and at the same time supporting an industry still hurting due to the pandemic and brutal 2020 oil market conditions.
“The reality is that not since the time of Brian Mulroney and John Crosbie has there been more done for the offshore by a federal government, by this government.”
O’regan told the committee he was a paper boy for The Telegram when the Ocean Ranger went down in 1982, having to deliver the dark edition with its massive headline to devastated readers. He also acknowledged the Cougar helicopter crash and its impact on the province.
But he said there can be no shortcuts when it comes to health and safety, and noted the offshore is jointly managed by the federal government and the provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
NDP MP
Jack Harris, however, remarked 300 pages isn’t that much when it comes to regulations and wanted to know why the transitional regulations were allowed to lapse on Dec. 31, which is galling.
“Was somebody asleep at the wheel?” he asked.
DELAYS, DELAYS
Newfoundland and Labrador Oil and Gas Industries Association (Noia) CEO Charlene Johnson told the committee that the Canada-newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (CNLOPB), being the regulator, continues to ensure health and safety regulations and best practices are followed, and is respected around the world for its diligence.
But she said the permanent regulations need to be completed and Noia wants them done by the end of the year.
“The process to initiate new health and safety regulations for the offshore has taken far too long,” Johnson said.
“It is another symptom of the disease of delay that has permeated our industry and hindered our growth.
“The international industry monitors the speed of our processes, and protracted delay influences their interest.”
She said continual delays and ever-changing goalposts affect decisions to invest in Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore.
“When it comes to regulations — and not just this one occupational health and safety — when it comes to numerous regulations, the time it takes in Newfoundland and Labrador and in Canada compared to other jurisdictions, we are way, way behind other justifications, which makes us less competitive,” she said.
Johnson said Nova Scotia’s occupational health and safety advisory committee has been meeting since March 2019 and the counterpart in Newfoundland and Labrador is still not formed.
O’regan said the federal appointment is done and it’s waiting on the province.
Unifor Local 2021 president Dave Mercer agreed with Johnson that the CNLOPB is doing a great job, but not having the permanent regulations is confusing for workers.
“We were told a long time ago this would be pretty easy to do and it keeps getting pushed ahead, pushed ahead and pushed ahead,” Mercer said.
The union — which represents 800 offshore workers, including those at Hibernia and Terra Nova — has made a pitch to strengthen the regulations, including adding mental-health safety training.
The committee supported the bill. It still has to go to Parliament for third reading.