By Matthew Bains

 

PEACE REGION – A group representing landowners in the Peace Region is not satisfied with the government or regulator’s assurances about the safety of the oil and gas industry and have retained the services of a lawyer in an effort to change regulations. 

 

“At this point in time, we’re not looking at lawsuits or legal action in that sense,” said Lois Hill, member of the Peace Environment and Safety Trustees Society (PEST). “If we can work collaboratively with government and with industry to achieve the changes we want, that would be the ideal situation.” 

 

Hill said they received funding from Vancouver-based West Coast Environmental Law to cover most of the cost of retaining a lawyer from a Victoria law firm, but they are required to pay $1,200 of the $6,000 cost. She made a request on July 22 that the regional district provide $2,000 to cover that expense, as well as the group’s own expenses as they continue their own research and conference with the lawyer. 

 

Hill said the lawyer would look into the legal implications under current legislation as it relates to protecting the public’s safety from the risks she said residents living near gas wells or facilities are exposed to. She added the lawyer would also examine the regulations set to be enacted under the Oil and Gas Activities Act in the near future.  

 

“We need to be sure that, when we come up with the positive reasons that we need change and we need to be protected, that the Ministry won’t just turn around and say that will all be covered in the new Act.”

 

Hill said her group’s own examination of some of those proposed regulations doesn’t convince them protection of the public’s health and safety will be improved. She said, for example, they had asked that companies be required to inform landowners of the potential for a risk or hazard before any lease is signed for their properties, but the Ministry and the OGC would only agree that landowners should be informed about any quality of life issues such as dust or noise. 

 

“Those are the kinds of things we would like to see changed in the new legislation,” said Hill.

 

She added concerns about health and safety were amplified by the gas leak that occurred last November south of Pouce Coupe. She said the Oil and Gas Commission’s investigation into the incident failed to address or even acknowledge the health impacts to residents and their livestock.    

 

“We decided, as the Peace Environment Safety Trustees, that we weren’t satisfied with this, and we wanted to find out what further actions or direction we should take,” she said.

 

She added Northern Health was never involved in that investigation. Medical officers with the health authority wrote a letter to the OGC in February citing their own concerns with the lack of co-ordination with medical staff at the time of the incident. 

 

PEST called for a public inquiry into the gas leak and a petition they circulated garnered signatures from nearly 40 local individuals and 28 different regional and provincial groups that supported that request. The regional district board also supported that call.