Outline

1. Strategic Environmental Assessment: Perspectives from the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board Eric Theriault Canada – Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board

2. Outline • Mandate of the CNSOPB • Environmental Protection • Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) • SEA Case Study

3. Canada – Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) • Established 1990 by federal and provincial governments • Independent Board to manage petroleum resources and activities offshore Nova Scotia

4. Canadian Regulatory Regimes

5. CNSOPB Mandate • protection of the environment • health and safety of offshore workers • resource conservation • Canada – Nova Scotia benefits

6. Environmental Protection Legislation, Regulations and Guidelines Industry’s Environmental Management Plan Research and Development Environmental Assessment Monitoring Generic EAs Strategic EA Project-Specific EA Follow-up Programs

7. SEA: CNSOPB Perspectives • SEAs are an important tool for supporting the environmental protection mandate of the CNSOPB. • Identification of environmental issues prior to opening areas for offshore petroleum activity.

8. SEA: CNSOPB Perspectives • SEAs are conducted on broader geographic areasbefore specific projects are proposed. • Provide an ecological overview of an area. • SEAs consider the scope and nature of environmental effects likely to result from future petroleum activities in an area.

9. SEA: CNSOPB Perspectives • Provide a forum for public input regarding offshore areas that may have activity. • Allows for long-term planning and for regional environmental concerns to be considered.

10. SEA: CNSOPB Perspectives • . SEAs inform project proponents SEAs support environmentally sustainable policy-making Improved environmental protection and decision making

11. SEA Methodology • a Valued Ecosystem Components (VEC) approach to SEA is used. • VEC examples: • fish and invertebratesof commercial importance • spawning areas • marine mammals • marine birds • benthic communities • species at risk • special areas

12. Other Important Components • cumulative effects • primary biological productivity • plankton • sensitive coastal areas • potential effects on commercial fisheries and other • ocean users

13. SEA Structure • Ecological overview • Identification of VECs • Assessment of potential environmental effects • Findings and recommendations

14. A Recent SEA: Misaine Bank • Current geoscience knowledge and comparison to similar geological structures around the world suggest oil and gas reserves may be found in the Misaine Bank area. • Therefore, the CNSOPB decided to conduct an SEA of the area.

15. Misaine Bank SEA Area

16. Misaine Bank SEAContent • provides an ecological overview of the area • discusses the potential environmental effects associated with offshore petroleum exploration activities • makes recommendations for mitigation and planning in the area

17. Misaine Bank SEAFindings • The area is not more sensitive to the potential effects of oil and gas exploration than other areas of the Scotian Shelf. • The area is less affected by past human activities, particularly bottom trawling, than many other areas previously opened to oil and gas exploration. • The area has uncommon topography and may support unusual benthic communities in the numerous deep holes of cold water, such as the Louisbourg Hole.

18. Misaine Bank SEA Findings • Fisheries for snow crab and northern shrimp within the Misaine SEA area are highly lucrative. • The Laurentian Channel, on the eastern edge of the area, is an important migration route for marine mammals. • Numerous coastal sites along eastern Cape Breton • are sensitive to potential accidental spills of hydrocarbons. 

19. Misaine Bank SEA Recommendations • consideration of the ‘findings’ in future project-specific EAs • the Louisbourg Hole should be treated as a “special area” and be included in future project-specific EAs • the study area could be opened to oil and gas exploration

20. Conclusions • The CNSOPB conducts SEAs to assist in identifying environmental issues prior to opening areas for petroleum exploration. • May result in the CNSOPB not opening a particular area to exploration. • Issues identified in SEAs may be addressed through project-specific environmental assessments. • All subsequent projects in a SEA study area still require project-specific environmental assessments.

21. Conclusions • SEAs completed by the CNSOPB thus far have been useful tools for: • providing an overview of existing environmental conditions • identifying potential environmental effects associated with future offshore petroleum activities • identifying general mitigative measures that should be considered for application to exploration activities

22. Thank You For more information : www.cnsopb.ns.ca