The federal Fisheries Department said last September it would no longer use an $8.3-million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a U.S.-based environmental trust. The foundation donated the money through charity Tides Canada, which was to distribute the funds with federal oversight to support a departmental marine-planning initiative.
The reversal came almost a year after Ottawa accepted the deal, and scrapping the arrangement went against the advice of public servants, documents show.
The grant was to provide the bulk of funding for consultations launched by the department, paying for scientific research and to gather advice from stakeholders on balancing conservation with economic use of ocean waters on British Columbia's north coast.
The public-private consultations are helping the department draft a plan to govern the marine area, which includes waters oil tankers would travel on to reach a marine terminal for Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
The Harper government recently targeted Tides Canada and other groups it says are trying to block the pipeline by stacking regulatory hearings. The pipeline would carry Alberta oilsands crude to a northwest B.C. port for export.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver singled out Tides Canada in January, saying the charity funnels foreign cash to pipeline opponents who "threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda."
Enbridge lobbyists used a similar argument to criticize the department's deal with Tides Canada in a December 2010 meeting with a senior bureaucrat in the Fisheries Department, according to documents obtained via Access to Information.
Lobbyists argued in a slide show presented to the department's director general for oceans that the charity opposed the Northern Gateway project, and that Tides Canada's involvement in the consultations would see the process "hijacked" against the pipeline.
Enbridge denies any part in the decision to end the agreement, while the Fisheries Department says the deal was cancelled to conclude the consultation process by the end of 2012, as scheduled.
In its presentation, Enbridge raised concern about Tides Canada taking an administrative role in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA) initiative as part of the grant deal..
The slides indicate Enbridge worried Tides Canada would influence suggestions on location of the zones as a way to choke tanker traffic to the proposed pipeline terminal.
Enbridge lobbyists pointed to previous Tides Canada and Moore Foundation grants to First Nations groups on the committee, including co-chair Coastal First Nations, an alliance of local bands that has opposed the pipeline project.
Enbridge believed those groups would also slant the consultations, and fail to ensure Tides Canada acted transparently, the slides suggest.
A draft briefing note on the lobbying circulated between Fisheries Department officials in January 2011 noted that "several industry groups have also expressed the concern that any non-government funding may unduly influence the decision-making process."
Another stakeholder, the Chamber of Shipping of British Columbia, has criticized the Tides Canada deal, saying in a trade publication published in September 2011 that the charity would use the consultations to block oil tanker traffic.
Ottawa dropped its support for the grant agreement eight months after the Enbridge lobbying, a move that cut out the Moore Foundation funding and ended Tides Canada's involvement with PNCIMA.
Sarah Goodman, a vice-president at Tides Canada, said the lobbyists mischaracterized the organization's stance on the pipeline and oilsands expansion.
"Tides doesn't have a specific position on the oilsands," she said.
She said about three per cent of its grant money goes to groups involved with oilsands campaigns, some of which publicly raise concerns about the possible environmental impact of the Enbridge pipeline project.
Enbridge spokesman Paul Stanway said the company would not comment on the Fisheries Department's reversal.
"Enbridge played no part in that decision," he said. "We are a regulated industry and we have regular contact with federal government officials."
Documents show that ending the agreement countered the advice of public servants in the department, who continued to back the grant deal in the wake of the lobbying.
"This funding arrangement is not driven by corporate or ideological interests," the draft briefing note from January 2011 said.
"It will allow DFO to better engage with all stakeholders and build an integrated oceans plan that is based on the best available scientific and technical knowledge and expertise."
Original Article
Source: CBC
Author: CP
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