Yukon MP Larry Bagnell is “delighted” by the joint Canada-United States decision to ban new oil and gas licences in Arctic waters.

“When I was in Parliament six years ago, I was sort of a lone voice arguing against drilling in the Arctic until they found, scientifically, a way to clean up an oil spill in ice-filled waters,” he said in an interview today.

Right now, it’s virtually impossible to clean up an oil spill in Arctic waters because large chunks of ice, and fast moving ice make it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to contain the spill inside a boom, the floating barrier that’s typically strung around off-shore spills.

For this reason in particular, it was important that the U.S. partnered with Canada to protect Arctic seas from drilling, said Bagnell.

“Because of the circular currents in the Arctic Ocean, if something were to happen in Alaskan waters it would come into our waters too,” he said.

Canada and the U.S. jointly announced a ban on new off-shore oil and gas leases in Arctic waters Tuesday in an effort to restrict future drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

U.S President Barack Obama says the ban is indefinite and invoked a 1953 law to protect unleased undersea lands from future sales.

The U.S. Continental Outer Shelf Lands Act offers no easy avenue for president-elect Donald Trump to undo the action.

The Canadian ban will be up for review in five years.

Along with capping future drilling projects, Ottawa and Washington said they will work together to regulate Arctic fisheries and find the safest and the most environmentally-sound shipping routes through northern seas.

Companies that already have licences to drill in the Arctic are not affected by Tuesday’s announcement.

Canada said it will consult with existing owners of offshore oil and gas permits for one year.

Sebastian Jones, an energy analyst with the Yukon Conservation Society, said Tuesday’s announcement suggests the beginning of the end of oil and gas domination in the energy market.

“It’s a big deal,” he said this morning from Dawson City, where he lives.

“It was politically easy enough to do because the era of oil and gas is drawing to a close, and that is indicated by the lack of interest by these big companies in actually exploring in that country.”

There is no off-shore drilling happening in Canadian Arctic waters right now, in large part because it’s high-risk and costly.

For most oil and gas companies, “remote and expensive petroleum products, including gas, just aren’t worth it,” said Jones.

“By the time you brought it all the way south, you’ve used up all the energy in it, or so much of it, it’s not worthwhile.”

While the U.S. is putting an indefinite ban on new, off-shore Arctic oil and gas leases, Canada’s moratorium will be up for review in five years.

Bagnell suspects that Canada doesn’t want to take long-term actions that could stifle job creation in the North, particularly in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

However, until there’s a safe and environmentally sound way clean up oil spills in ice-filled waters, he said, the ban will likely stay in place.

The plan announced Tuesday does include scientific research into the safe extraction of oil and gas off Arctic shores, said Bagnell.

The Liberal MP also predicts a waning interest in northern oil and gas developments.

“As there’s more and more renewables ... there’s going to be less and less incentive for any private sector to go into oil and gas,” he said.

“They can make a lot of money with renewables in the North.”

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) is “OK” with Canada’s five-year ban on new oil and gas licenses in Arctic waters, said Paul Barnes, the organization’s Atlantic Canada and Arctic manager.

Barnes said there is a lot of oil and gas potential in the Beaufort Sea, but “with today’s oil prices and the abundance in supply from around North America and the world, our side of the industry wasn’t really planning to invest in the arctic in the near term.”

In five years’ time, when Canada’s moratorium is up for review, CAPP will reassess whether drilling in the Beaufort is financially viable.

“We’re OK to wait for these five-year increments,” he said.

“We want to see where new technology takes us.”

In Jones’ view, it was a relatively easy move, politically, for the U.S. and Canada to come down on northern off-shore drilling, but it’s one that sends a strong message.

“It’s primarily symbolic but it’s a very powerful symbol,” he said.

“When you draw on a map the areas that are closed to drilling, that’s a big area, the entire Canadian Arctic, that’s a big deal.”

See related coverage in today’s Environment section.