A key plank of a new federal government initiative to protect Canada’s oceans from oil spills involves a $45.5-million program to “leverage collaboration among the best researchers across the country and around the world,” Fisheries and Oceans Canada has announced.
Led by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the new five-year multi-partner research initiative will include a $10 million-a-year research fund to let scientists work on how oil spills behave, discover new technologies and protocols to contain spills, and how to best minimize oil spill impact. The research initiative will also connect with oil spill experts in government, industry and academia, Indigenous and coastal communities, regulatory agencies, and response organizations.
The federal department has also announced $17.7 million towards “enhancing” ocean models of winds, waves and currents. These updates are intended to give emergency responders better tools to track oil spills and predict their path, as well as allow for safer marine navigation in general. Advanced ocean modelling work will be conducted in six priority ports: Kitimat, Port-Metro Vancouver, and Fraser River Port in British Columbia; the Port of Canso, Nova Scotia; the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, and the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City to Montreal.
“Science will form the foundation of our world-leading marine safety system,” announced Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. “This new investment in research and new technologies will allow us to better prevent and respond to potential marine incidents and will help us protect Canada’s marine ecosystems from coast to coast to coast.”
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Additional funding announced includes $16.8 million for oil spill research to “better understand how oil behaves and degrades in different conditions, including cold water,” according to a statement from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Maritimes Region. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says these funds will go towards its National Contaminants Advisory Group (NCAG) administering projects on oil and gas contaminants research. Working with universities and other research organizations, NCAG says it aims to better understand the biological effects of contaminants on aquatic species.
Projects announced under NCAG and the $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan are listed below. For even more details on these projects, please click here.
| Recipient | Name of research project | Years of research project | Funding contribution from DFO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simon Fraser University (Dr. Kennedy) | The environmental effects of diluted bitumen on marine phytoplankton, macroalgae and intertidal vascular plants (three years) | 2017-2020 | $216,000 |
| University of Saskatchewan (Dr. Jardine) | Evaluating effects of the Husky Energy pipeline spill on fishes in the North Saskatchewan River (three years) | 2017-2020 | $224,000 |
| University of Victoria (Dr. Helbing) | Enabling rapid evaluation of biological effects of oil spills on juvenile Pacific salmon in coastal habitats (three years) | 2017-2020 | $223,000 |
| Institut national de la recherche scientifique - Centre Eau Terre Environnement (Dr. Couture) | Examination of the toxicity of diluted bitumen on freshwater fish (three years) | 2017-2020 | $225,000 |
| Institut national de la recherche scientifique - Centre Eau Terre Environnement (Dr. Langlois) | Responses of wild fish to a controlled spill of diluted bitumen in enclosures deployed in a boreal lake at the International Institute for Sustainable Development- Experimental Lake Area (IISD- ELA), Northwestern Ontario (four years) | 2017-2021 | $232,000 |
| University of Guelph (Dr. Gillis) | Effects and biomarkers of diluted bitumen exposure relevant to seawater transition in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) (three years) | 2017-2020 | $225,000 |
| Dalhousie University (Dr. Niu) | Modeling the fate/transport of refined oil products and assessment of their biological effects (one year) | 2017 – 2018 | $60,000 |
| Total: $1,405,000 |
