Hogan, while calling himself one of the province’s most ardent oil boosters, agrees with the fisherman. “We need the business here,” the mayor says. “There’s no greater advocate than me for developing this area into a world-class eastern Canadian centre for the transportation, storage and refining of crude and, maybe someday, natural gas,” says Hogan. “But we shouldn’t let our enthusiasm get in the way of common sense and end up with an oil spill capable of ruining the environment for generations.”
Hogan has butted heads with federal officials over spill prevention and cleanup for several years and is growing frustrated. He says Ottawa is too slow to develop an effective plan capable of preventing or mitigating a tanker traffic accident.

To explain themselves, federal authorities held a town hall meeting at Placentia in April. But Hogan recalls the event as a disappointing waste of time that left most who attended baffled and annoyed by assurances that the situation is being monitored. “I didn’t think they could BS that high,” he says.

“It’s terrible that there’s nothing in place to control the traffic better, because it’s slipshod now. I’ve done a couple of papers on that and met with the federal government on it and they just held a seminar to release something that they’ve been studying for years. There’s no plan in place to really say we’ve got everything under control.”

Hogan says hundreds of reefs, fog and lax tanker traffic management are potentially an environmentally lethal mix. “We’ve had large tankers come into Placentia Bay and, at the last minute, not be allowed beyond a certain imaginary line. We’ve had traffic come and cross that line, large tankers of oil, and having to stop and then try to turn around and get back outside the bay again without going aground. If one of these tankers go aground in Placentia Bay, Exxon [the Valdez spill in Alaska] is going to pale in comparison.”

Canadian Coast Guard records show that 153 spills and possible discharges occurred in Newfoundland and Labrador waters in 2002. By 2005, that figure had risen to 192. It dropped to 132 in 2006, but the latest count, recorded in 2008, was up again to 163 spills and possible discharges.

Federal regulations require emergency response within 72 hours of an incident. Eastern Canada Response Corporation (ECRC), the federally certified team designated to clean up spills, has its crew in St. John’s, a three-hour drive from Placentia. Coast Guard, Environment Canada and Transport Canada officials could not be reached for comment.

But Come By Chance Mayor Joan Cleary isn’t shy about the risks of locating the emergency crew so far away. “Oil spills know no season,” she says. “What happens if the roads are blocked? It’s going to take a while to get it out of there [St. John’s]. Every hour is important if you have a major spill.”

Cleary, Hogan and O’Brien want facilities that can respond to a spill before contamination of the marine ecology can set in, as close as possible to tanker and fisheries traffic. “Placentia Bay is, or will be, more active in the shipping business than any other part of the northeast Atlantic or at least Eastern Canada and has more marine-related hazards, which has the ingredients for a terrible disaster if not managed properly,” says Hogan. “And the money would probably be great for the people cleaning up.”

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