Letter: Fiscal Relief for Atlantic Canada’s Offshore Oil and Gas Industry
May 13, 2020
In recent weeks we have been having discussions with your Department staff, representatives of the department of Finance and the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, along with representatives from the Governments of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, related to the current unprecedented challenges facing Canada’s offshore oil and gas industry. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis and resulting drop in global demand for oil/oil price collapse has placed tremendous pressure on our members operating in the offshore. These challenges have resulted in stalled developments, such as the Bay du Nord and West White Rose projects, delays in Terra Nova’s Asset Life Extension project, and cancellation of some exploration programs and subsea tie-back projects. Federal support measures that have been announced for industry to date, while vitally important, do not address the unique needs of Canada’s offshore industry. Timely action to address this gap is critical, in particular to the many thousands of women and men who depend of the offshore industry for
their livelihoods.