Notably, the status of the IAA is currently in flux due to a recent opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada that found the Act unconstitutional in part.1 The Act remains in force pending anticipated amendments by the Government of Canada, and a policy statement by the government explains how the Act will be administered during this interim period.2 Part 5 of the CERA deals specifically with offshor. [...] Under the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf—which is what the courts relied on in the reference cases described in this report—the continental shelf was defined as “the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of the territorial sea, to a depth of 200 metres or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of 20 See: Reference re Offshore Mineral. [...] 7 the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of the natural resources of the said areas”, also including “the seabed and subsoil of similar areas adjacent to the coasts of islands”.23 Key passages of the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf that were later incorporated into the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea grant sovereign rights to coastal states over the conti. [...] 9 lands, mines, minerals, royalties or other rights, including the right to explore and exploit and the right to legislate, with respect to the mineral and other natural resources of the seabed and subsoil from the ordinary low-water mark of the Province of Newfoundland to the seaward limit of the continental shelf or any part thereof belong or otherwise appertain to the Province of Newfoundland”.. [...] The CAN-NS Accord was the outcome of several years in which the Government of Canada and the governments of the four Atlantic Canadian provinces considered how best to share (or decline to share) the potential benefits of offshore oil and gas activities across the country.
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