WWF accused of 'meddling in northern business'

Entrepreneurs in the Northwest Territories' Mackenzie Delta are accusing the World Wildlife Fund and other "southern-based" groups of not talking to northerners before launching campaigns they claim could hurt the region.

The WWF is asking Prime Minister Stephen Harper to postpone the auction of oil and gas exploration leases in the Beaufort Sea, citing the U.S. government's decision earlier this month to list the polar bear as a threatened species.

"There's no doubt that if this part of the country is going to have an economic future, it's going to be tied to gas and oil," Tom Zubko, president of New North Networks Ltd. in Inuvik, told CBC News.

"It's a continued process of southern-based environmentalist organizations meddling in northern business," he added. "Let the organizations and regulatory bodies in the Northwest Territories look after their business."

In a release issued Tuesday, the WWF called on Harper to postpone the June 2 auction of Beaufort Sea ocean and gas rights until a Beaufort Sea management plan is worked out that takes into account polar bears and other species that live in the ocean.

The global conservation group said the federal government should wait until it fully understands the environmental impacts of drilling, and knows how to clean up 'inevitable' spills.

"This sale is premature due to the absence of a completed Beaufort Sea management plan that would protect sensitive habitats, which polar bears, beluga and bowhead whales need for their survival," said Peter Ewins, the WWF's director of species conservation.

"The Canadian government has promised firm and swift actions to protect polar bears and their habitat – to keep this commitment, the proposed June 2 sale must be delayed until the government has proper management measures in place."

Zubko and fellow business owner Kurt Wainman said the Beaufort Delta's economic health depends on oil and gas exploration.

Last year, Imperial Oil Ltd. and ExxonMobil Canada paid $585 million in a similar auction for a licence to search for oil and gas in a 205,000-hectare parcel of the Beaufort Sea floor, about 100 kilometres north of the delta.

Wainman, who owns Northwind Industries in Inuvik, said his company employs around 100 people at busy times, with much of the work supporting oil and gas work in the region.

"Nobody was up here asking anyone if it's a good idea or, you know, consulting with anyone in this area at all," Wainman said of the WWF.

"I mean, how dare they even go and ask the prime minister without consulting the local people?"

Ottawa has offered up the rights to oil-and-gas exploration on nearly three million acres of continental shelf in the Beaufort Sea, north of the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Bids are being accepted up until June 2.

In its news release, the WWF said a management plan is not yet complete for the Beaufort Sea, even though the federal Oceans Act requires such plans and marine protected area networks to be in place for all of Canada's oceans.

The conservation group said it is "in agreement with leaders in the oil and gas sector that an expedited regional environmental assessment could satisfy planning requirements within a shorter time-frame and streamline future approvals creating a win-win-win situation for conservation, industry and the Inuvialuit."