Do you think it is worth the risk to the environment to allow oil exploration in Canada's Arctic?
 

YES: 10.71%
NO: 76.9%
MAYBE: 12.50%

• The Canadian government is kidding itself if it thinks that an environmental nightmare on the scale of the Gulf of Mexico explosion and spill can't happen here. The impact on the Canadian fishery and/or Arctic would be catastrophic. It's just not worth the risk.
• Having worked on measures to clean-up an oil spill in the Arctic, I would say it would be a monumental disaster without precedent as the oil would spread under the ice and would be inaccessible.
• Accidents happen. Doing nothing is not the solution.
• Harper has his head where the sun don't shine! We are going to smother ourselves if we keep up with insanity. My great grandchildren are still going to be cleaning up the Gulf spill. Time for wind and solar.
• Tragic situation. Harper should never say never. The same was probably said by someone about the Gulf.
• To think that an oil spill could never occur in Canada's north is what I have termed the "Titanic syndrome". It ignores the element of human error or equipment failure. It is obvious that British Petroleum had never considered a failure of one of its drilling platforms and didn't have a clue about how to deal with it. The ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico has been changed forever. It will be decades if not centuries before the damage can be repaired. A similar spill in the Arctic would be even more devastating since the Arctic ecosystem is more delicate.
• Why are we still relying on fossil fuels? Shouldn't we focus our efforts on greener solutions which would be healthier for us and the environment?
• The proposed drilling location in Canada is MORE likely to have an 'accident' than in the Gulf. Drilling on the shelf is fraught with challenges.
• I don't see why our Canadian costal waters are any different. It happened in Mexico, I think that it could happen again. How can Harper say that it could not happen in Canada. It is our Prime Minister talking he has said lots of things that make no sense.
• All the scientists in the world are failing.
• Harper thinks he is God. There are no absolutes in the oil business.
• If it can happen there it can happen again. This has been a disaster that they have taken lightly and will see the repercussions for years to come. A lot of damage to repair if it ever can be.
• Not until solutions that work have been found should any further underwater oil wells be allowed to operate.
• We already have wells that are more than twice the depth of the BP well in the Gulf. The BP well is a similar configuration.
• On what basis does Harper think a similar event could not happen here in our Arctic.
• It is minor compared to what nature can unleash.
• It is the crime of the century and made possible by weak regulatory rules regarding environmentally vulnerable areas. Corporations have dangerous control of national regulators and this has to stop. It will only happen if citizens get involved and force public regulators to do their work of protecting the environment.
• Arctic is much more complex and varied climate therefore much higher probability of a disaster.
• I sincerely hope our dear Stephen Harper, PM was misquoted....if not all I can say to him is duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
• I cannot imagine how a disaster of that type could ever be remedied in our northern environment. The best solution is to not go there at all.
• Regulators in Canada have also been captured by the industries they regulate. They need to be more independent with stronger citizen oversight mechanisms in place.
• There's always a chance - but until the thirst for oil is quenched, we have no choice.
• Who could comment without understanding what safety nets are in place? Maybe we have some cutting edge technology we could share with the world.
• Accidents are always a possibility, but layering on so many variables simply increases the risk of a disaster exponentially. With the ever increasing demands for oil and oil based products it is completely unrealistic to expect that exploration and drilling can be reduced no matter what conservation/reductions/reusing practices are in place. It should be absolutely mandatory that extensive, comprehensive and unbiased environmental studies are completed before any type of drilling is even considered let alone approved, and this must go hand-in-hand with complete and comprehensive disaster plans for every possible scenario should anything actually go wrong so that it can be capped off and cleaned up immediately. There is absolutely no excuse for the Gulf situation to have taken so long to resolve.
• The Prime Minister has recently removed most environmental safeguards regarding oil exploration, so that they are now much weaker than what the Americans had before their gulf disaster. If Arctic oil extraction takes place, the assumption should be not if, but when will the disaster occur.