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Project Partner: Norman Dale
Click here to download the press release
Click here to download the report (PDF)
Click here to download the report (ZIP)
 The well-being of coastal human communities should be paramount in any marine resource decision-making. As a result, a significant part of the ongoing re-examination of the moratoria on offshore oil and gas should focus on the debate about what the community and socioeconomic implications will be in the region surrounding the most prospective basins. Within most of the communities of the Queen Charlotte Basin there is a strong sense of economic urgency, as longstanding mainstay sectors of commercial fishing and forestry continue to face hardship. Yet the close relationship of human communities to environment and renewable resources also means high levels of concern about any activity that could potentially affect the health of natural ecosystems. This project and report is focused on soundly and thoroughly identifying and considering all the prevalent questions and views of people of the region.
The methods used and approach taken in this work were adaptive and collaborative. The principal intent was to grasp and address the understandings and uncertainties about community and socioeconomic effects of offshore development as seen from the communities of the Queen Charlotte Basin. This involved a sequence of phases in order to establish a solid working relationship with a representative sample of well-informed and influential individuals, and thereby derive a community-relevant "state-of-knowledge" assessment. The phases included:
- Development of an initial work plan in consultation with the UNBC Northern Coastal Information and Research Program and with other projects underway within that program; preliminary review of key sources of offshore oil and gas information.
- Preliminary framing of key questions and issues from the basin perspective through extensive field visits and interviews.
- Exploration of key Queen Charlotte Basin issues and questions and elaboration on that list through a study tour to a place where offshore development was already underway.
- Preliminary compilation of the results of the study tour and interviews, to produce discussion framework for "report-back" to communities.
- Presentations reflecting back to communities what had been learned and how.
- Detailed content analysis of interviews, east coast results, literature pertinent to key questions and issues.
The core of this work was learning about the hopes, concerns, fears and assumptions that communities have regarding socioeconomic effects if offshore oil and gas exploration and development went forward. While the project was not intended to provide definitive answers to these matters, it has shed light on them and indicated further directions to improve what is understood about critical socio-economic and social issues.
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