Ottawa Considers Lifting Arctic Offshore Drilling Ban

Ottawa is considering lifting its ban on offshore oil and gas exploration in the Western Arctic, according to The Globe and Mail.

The ban, called a moratorium, is a formal pause on offshore oil and gas exploration in the region. Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and then-U.S. president Barack Obama imposed it in 2016.

Finance Canada spokesperson Marie-France Faucher said that money set aside in the fall budget for governance of Arctic offshore oil and gas will partly go toward considering whether to lift the moratorium in the Western Arctic. The budget earmarks $1 million in 2027-28 and $3 million the following year for oversight of fossil fuel exploration in the Western Arctic.

Ottawa reviews the moratorium every five years. The current ban is set to expire in 2028. The Northwest Territories has urged the federal government for years to revisit it, and Nunavut has more recently joined that call.

In 2023, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, an Indigenous organization in the Western Arctic, signed the Western Arctic-Tariuq Accord with Ottawa. The agreement sets out a co-management and revenue-sharing arrangement, meaning shared decision-making and a shared division of income. It would come into force if the moratorium is lifted.

Another item in the fall budget is a commitment to fund construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway.