Plans to change the status of the beluga whales in the St-Lawrence River to ‘endangered’ has serious consequences for a planned oil terminal in Cacouna, Premier Philippe Couillard said Tuesday.
The planned oil terminal would be installed in a beluga nursery in Cacouna, near Riviere-du-Loup on the province’s southern shore.
The latest information about the beluga population indicates there are fewer than 1,000 whales left in the St-Lawrence – down from 10,000 in 1885.
Couillard said after a meeting Tuesday with Alberta Premier Jim Prentice that the belugas' new endangered status likely means the TransCanada Energy East pipeline will be forced to find a new spot.
“It makes it much more difficult, obviously,” said Couillard. “It's a new piece of information that is added to the project that the promoter has to deal with. They have to deal with this issue, because it's going to be on the table both with the BAPE (Office of Public Hearings on the Environment) and the NEB (National Energy Board) process so whether they want to choose an alternate site is for them to decide but it certainly adds to the level of difficulty.”
TransCanada has halted its exploratory work in Cacouna because of the new beluga status, adding that it needs to reassess the Cacouna location.
