‘Impartial’ group funded by petroleum producers

A new organization claiming to stand for “impartial, authoritative and evidence-based research” on shipping along Canada’s coasts is financially backed by the petroleum industry.

Vancouver-based Clear Seas is receiving startup funding from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers as well as the Alberta government and Transport Canada, the organization’s executive director, Richard Wiefelspuett, said.

Wiefelspuett, who resigned his $113,152-a-year job as associate dean of BCIT’s marine campus in March, said Port Metro Vancouver suggested the creation of the organization. Other provinces are being asked for funding, including B.C., although the goal is to have Clear Seas entirely funded by industry, similar to the way ships pay to fund a spillresponse organization.

“The mandate is clearly to be independent,” he said. “In all the funding agreements, there are clearly no strings attached.”

Under the Canada Shipping Act, oil ships greater than 150 gross tonnage, other ships greater than 400 gross tonnage and oil-handling facilities must have an arrangement with a certified spill-response organization. Locally, Western Canada Marine Response Corp. receives $6 million to $8 million in revenue annually from about 2,200 members.

A tanker safety panel report for Transport Canada in 2013 recommended the Canadian government “collaborate with industry to establish and together fund a Canadian research and development program for oil spill preparedness and response. Research priorities should be identified through collaboration between industry, government and academia.”

Clear Seas has assembled a high-profile board of directors, including: Kim Baird, the former chief of the Tsawwassen First Nation; Duncan Wilson, vicepresident of Port Metro Vancouver; Kathryn Moran, president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada at the University of Victoria; Bud Streeter, president of Lloyd’s Register Canada, in Halifax; Roger Thomas, a retired executive vice-president at Nexen, an oil and gas company; John Woodward, a partner in Woodcorp Investments Ltd. and a board member of Pacific Salmon Foundation; John Hepburn, vice-president of research at the University of B.C.; and Lindsay Gordon, chancellor of UBC.

“That’s an incredible board,” Wiefelspuett said. “There’s interesting, lively and well-informed debate at the table.”

Karen Wristen, executive director of Living Oceans Society, said she likes the balanced board, but noted Clear Seas can only be seen as a credible organization if it is transparent and its research and modelling are open to public scrutiny. She said the petroleum industry in North America has been using purchased proprietary data “so there is no getting behind the work they do to see if the assumptions are right and the results are trustworthy.”

Wiefelspuett said there is a need for “credible, fact-based information” to assist decisionmakers on shipping, which is expected to increase on all of Canada’s coasts. Clear Seas is interested in all forms of shipping, not just oil and LNG, noting they all “carry different risks in different ports on different routes,” he said.

Clear Seas has already contracted with the Council of Canadian Academies to provide a risk assessment and socio-economic study of vessel traffic on the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic coastlines as well as the St. Lawrence Seaway, he said.

The organization’s budget has not been revealed, although Wristen said she understands it has millions at its disposal. The organization has three employees, with the goal of six to eight staff members in the short term, Wiefelspuett said.

Clear Seas will be officially unveiled July 6.