CANADA - Next week, the House of Commons natural-resources committee will commence hearings into whether the country's laws and regulations are tough enough to prevent a disaster on the scale of the Gulf Coast spill. "We have serious concerns about the lack of rules in a Canadian context, and the lack of capacity to respond to a major spill, particularly in the Arctic," said New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen, who planned the hearings.

Based on emerging reports, Canada's offshore oil industry is relatively undeveloped compared with the Gulf of Mexico, which is dotted with several thousand platforms. There are only three offshore rigs - Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose - producing oil in Canadian waters, all located off Newfoundland. Several other projects are in the offing, including Chevron's plans to drill in the much deeper water of the Orphan Basin. There are also gas projects off Nova Scotia.

Mr. Rick George, Chief Executive Officer of Suncor Energy Inc. said last week that tougher regulation may be needed to increase the safety of offshore drilling and prevent accidents.

Speaking after the company's annual meeting in Calgary, George explained that the incident on the Gulf Coast prompted him to review Suncor's own operations off Newfoundland to ensure adequate preparations in the event of a spill. Although, some have called for a moratorium on offshore drilling in Canada, George maintained that tougher rules be enforced. "Offshore drilling is so important in terms of this overall equation of world energy....I don't think this is going to stop offshore drilling. What it may require is more regulation to make sure we have these safety systems that are absolutely fail-proof." He said.

Suncor inherited Petro-Canada's offshore business, which includes stakes in major East Coast developments in addition to working interests in the North Sea.

Imperial Oil said it expected the findings of American regulators investigating the Deep water Horizon incident to have an impact on its own plans to drill an offshore well in the Arctic.

Observers suggested that the Gulf oil spill takes some pressure off Canada's oil sands in terms of its ‘dirty oil’ image, but Suncor's George said oil sands producers still had a long way to go to improve their own environmental and safety performance.

The Harper government has insisted that Canada's regulations are much stronger than those in the United States. In principle, though, Canada's approach is similar: Oil companies must submit prevention and response plans to regulators, and, while a host of government departments and agencies will help clean up any spill, the companies themselves are ultimately in charge of the cleanup.

Experts examining the Deep water Horizon spill have been troubled by the fact that a widely used safeguard known as a blowout preventer failed to activate.

Rigs off Newfoundland use several methods to ensure that blowout preventers activate, from mini-subs to acoustic signaling, said Sean Kelly, a spokesman for the Newfoundland petroleum board.

In the United States of America, BP and other rig operators lobbied for regulations that would give the industry more latitude in implementing environmental protections. In Canada, oil companies have lobbied the National Energy Board, which is responsible for exploration in the Beaufort Sea and off the coast of British Columbia, to relax requirements on relief wells. NEB hearings on the issue have been suspended, pending the Gulf Coast investigation.

Michael Byers, an Arctic expert at the University of British Columbia, commented : "Cleaning up an oil spill in an area with sea ice is a nightmare scenario, because you can't operate the booms, you can't deploy skimmers, you can't operate boats and ships. And the colder the water, the more slowly the oil disperses, which is actually a bad thing, because any oil is likely to stay there for decades if not centuries."

Canada's Atlantic coast would also present unique challenges. The shortage of drill ships in the area would delay the drilling of a relief well if a blowout occurred.

The three current rigs are farther offshore than the Deep water Horizon, meaning it would take longer for a spill to drift ashore. Stormy Atlantic seas might break up a slick faster, but at the same time make it more difficult to use booms and skimmers.

John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club, said it was impossible to eliminate the risk of a major oil spill, no matter how good the technology. Canada should simply impose a moratorium on offshore drilling, he said.