this is neat & odd
it appears the courts award is not of actual provincial territory but of something that might be called provincial eezs
unprecedented so far as i know
remarkable too that the dividing line exceeds the normal 200nm eez line & even the continental shelf beyond that
but i do believe canadian provincial territory continues to end at the low tide line
& that all the maritime territory itself remains entirely federal & completely intact
m
>From: "Doug Murray Productions" >Reply-To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com >To: >Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Nova Scotia - Newfoundland offshore boundary >Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 08:08:34 -0800 > > >Interesting news item about the Nova Scotia - Newfoundland offshore boundary. Source: Globe & Mail, Wed. Apr. 3, 2002. > >Nfld. bests N.S. in tribunal's offshore ruling > > > >By KEVIN COX > > >Wednesday, April 3, 2002 - Print Edition, Page A6 > > > >HALIFAX -- Newfoundland politicians struggled to hide their jubilation and their Nova Scotia counterparts tried harder to disguise their dismay yesterday after a federal tribunal ruled that about 75 per cent of one of Canada's major offshore petroleum deposits belongs to the Rock. > >"We've had a very, very good past six days," Newfoundland Energy and Mines Minister Lloyd Matthews said, adding that the awarding of the oil- and gas-rich Laurentian sub-basin takes place only a few days after Husky Oil announced it would proceed with the White Rose offshore project. > >The decision by the federally appointed tribunal, headed by retired Supreme Court of Canada judge Gerard LaForest, ends a bitter and costly 37-year feud between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. > >Over the past three years, the two economically challenged provinces spent a combined total of about $5.2-million fighting over where the offshore boundary should be. > >In the end, the federal arbitration panel drew a line in the ocean dividing the waters between the provinces into equal parts. > >But the line also gives Newfoundland three-quarters of the 60,000-square-kilometre Laurentian sub-basin. > >Nova Scotia gets about 16 per cent, and 9 per cent of it belongs to France. > >Newfoundland's ownership means millions of dollars in potential royalties. > >Canada's poorest province also gets first dibs on thousands of jobs that could be created if a significant oil or natural-gas discovery is made in the area. > >"It's a very good outcome for us," Mr. Matthews said in an interview. "It allows us to accrue a significant amount of acreage. We always thought we had a very strong case to be made, and that's why we had an obligation to the people of this province to define that line." > >Mr. Matthews added that Newfoundland spent $1.8-million on the legal process to have the line defined after politicians from the two provinces repeatedly failed to come up with an agreement. > >"We never characterized this as a fight for territory or for a particular parcel. We started from the premise of wanting a line defined on the basis of international marine law," he said. > >Nova Scotia, which has insisted that the boundary was established in 1964 in agreement with Newfoundland, spent about $3.4-million in the fight for the sub-basin. >