Canada prepared for oil spill response: Shea

Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea says Canada has theability to respond to an oil spill after watching a Canadian Coast Guard exercise performing a mock disaster response on New Brunswick's Miramichi River.

Members of the Canadian Coast Guard had been on the popular New Brunswick river known for its salmon fishingall week, practising oil spill response procedures.

Shea joined them on Wednesday and said it was an opportunity to assure Canadians that the capacity is there to respond to an oil disaster, such as the one happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

"I think it's something Canada could handle," Shea said.

"I guess the first order of business is to ensure that it doesn't happen here, and that we have the capacity to respond."

She said the exercises she oversaw proved the Canadian Coast Guard has the ability to "respond quickly and effectively" to a major oil spill.

The Miramichi River was picked for the disaster response practice because of its challenging conditions, according to the federal government.

The coast guard officers were spreading orange booms across the northern New Brunswick river in an attempt to demonstrate how oil would be skimmed off the water.

The coast guard performs these exercises and tests its equipment every year.

Changes coming

Joe LeClair, a member of the Canadian Coast Guard's environmental response branch, said the BP oil spill could affect response preparations in the future.

"What's happening in the Gulf of Mexico is unprecedented in North America and I'm sure you'll see when this terrible catastrophe is finally finished there will be numerous changes on how we do business," LeClair said.

When BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, it unleashed the worst oil spill in U.S. history. BP is still trying to stop the oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

A U.S. government-created task force, known as the Flow Rate Technical Group,reported on June 10 that between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels of oil a day might have spilled out before BP installed a cap over the open wellon June 3, which slowed the leak.

New Brunswick Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet called on June 8 for Shea and the region's other fisheries ministers to participate in a special Atlantic summit on oil spills.

Doucet said the region needs to know it has the ability to clean up after a potential disaster and what would be the plans to protect the Atlantic fisheries sector.

Many people in the Gulf states that depend on the fisheries for their livelihoods have been devastated by the BP oil spill.

A date for the Atlantic oil spill summit has not been set.

Shea said on Wednesday the hope is that these spill clean up plans will never be used.

The federal government is now reviewing all of its oil regulations, Shea said, in order to prevent major oil spills from happening.