Looming Danger

The government’s own study had shown that if there was an oil blowout during the summer, there would not be enough time to drill a relief well before freeze up, so the oil would flow all winter until a relief ship could get to Tuktoyaktuk the following summer.

Our team at the Committee for Original Peoples Entitlement (COPE) was worried. If there were a blowout, it would kill whales, seals, fishes and polar bears. How could the people in the Inuvialuit communities survive without their traditional food?

The Berger Inquiry arrived in Inuvik in the winter of 1976. The judge held hearings in every community around the Delta and the Beaufort Sea. The hearings were like a court case so it was hard for some people to speak. But once the hearings started, people said what was in their minds.

In every community, the Inuvialuit said they didn’t want to see any drilling in the Beaufort Sea because Dome didn’t have an adequate contingency plan for a clean-up in the event of a blowout. We thought Dome should improve their clean up facilities first.

Dome said the company had the best clean up facilities in the world. We didn’t doubt that, we just felt that they were not good enough for this project in the Arctic. All they have to capture the oil are 4-foot booms that won’t work in the sea here.

Even the president of the drilling company, Gordon Harrison, said the 4-foot booms couldn’t handle the ice, they would break.

I think the government is biased toward development. Sometimes the government comes under a lot of pressure from the big companies. They have lots of money so they have a lot of power.

The Inuvialuit would never be able to get what we want unless we have a land claim settlement. Afterward we can take part in the decisions about what will happen on our own land.”