Province Re-introduces Offshore Job Safety Act

The province re-introduced legislation today, May 8, that supports efforts to ensure that Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Canada all have the same offshore job-safety rules.

"Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the federal government are close to completing an agreement for mirror legislation on job safety, so we want to keep the bill on the order paper as a sign to our partners of our continued support," said Environment and Labour Minister Carolyn Bolivar-Getson.

The bill re-introduced today replaces one that died on the order paper of the last session of the Legislative Assembly. It amends the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation (Nova Scotia) Act.

Currently, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board imposes occupational health and safety requirements on offshore operations as a condition of licence.

The soon-to-be completed agreement will replace that system with specific occupational health and safety legislation. This will give all three jurisdictions the same rules and improve the management of offshore job safety.

Ms. Bolivar-Getson said the other partners are in the process of confirming their acceptance of the agreement. Confirmation is expected shortly.

At that point, Nova Scotia will proceed with the legal drafting of an updated bill and consult its stakeholders.

Canada and Nova Scotia have agreed to jointly manage offshore oil and gas activities. All legislation affecting the offshore has to be passed by both the Nova Scotia legislature and Parliament.

Newfoundland and Labrador will be drafting similar legislation so that offshore companies and workers will continue to have the same rules no matter which province they are working with.