With a Quebec MP, Christian Paradis, in the role of Federal Natural Resources Minister, it'll be interesting to see the outcome of negotiations between Ottawa and Quebec over the Old Harry oil deposit straddling the Newfoundland and Labrador boundary.
The Canadian Press is reporting that a deal is near but what will this deal mean for the people of Newfoundland and and Labrador?
From the Canadian Press:
Federal government says Old Harry negotiations with Quebec going well
QUEBEC - Federal Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis says talks with Quebec over a disputed underwater energy deposit in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are progressing.
Paradis says he is hopeful negotiations with his provincial counterpart over the Old Harry reservoir will be completed shortly.
Quebec has tried to secure exclusive rights to the reservoir in the past, but the energy deposit straddles the border of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The dispute between the two provinces centres around ownership of the seabed and the territorial divide between Quebec and Newfoundland.
Paradis says negotiations are complex, but that it's important to reach a deal soon because Newfoundland already has an agreement in place with Ottawa.
The reservoir could represent billions of dollars in revenue for the two provinces and has a potential output of two billion barrels of oil and 5,000 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
A company has already started exploring the reservoir thanks to a permit from Newfoundland.
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The 1964 agreement was not recognized by the federal government either. A federal arbitration on the validity of the agreement in 2001 found it to be lacking the necessary parts to be considered a legal agreement. One of the main reasons was that the boundaries were included as a general proposal to the federal government for the provinces claim on sub sea rights. In 1967 the provinces lost and the Trudeau government refused to implement their proposal for sub sea rights and the boundaries that went with them. In reality, the UN Convention on the Seas clearly awards islands that do not follow the natural shoreline of a state a 22.5 km territorial sea, and a 22.5 km contigous zone – which would leave Old Harry outside the Magdelan Islands and therefore out of Quebec’s jurisdiction. There are many facts that are being ignored in this dipute at the moment that will come to the fore. It would be wise to recognize them in advance.
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