The Canadian government is putting the final touches on its promise to remove crude oil tankers from the northern British Columbia coast.
It is expected to release the details within three months of a strategy Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will hold up as proof that Canada is a serious player in tackling climate change.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Canada “wants the world to see we are putting together an approach” to protect ecosystems by protecting the environment and improving marine safety.
But there has been no indication whether the moratorium will affect the movement of about 300 tankers a year from Alaska to Puget Sound and California, which currently operate under a voluntary exclusion zone that requires loaded oil vessels to sail more than 50 nautical miles beyond the British Columbia coast.
Tankers from Alaska are rated as too dangerous to travel through Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound, the areas that will be embraced by the ban.
Since the Trudeau government was elected 10 months ago Garneau has been working with the ministers of Fisheries and Oceans, Natural Resources and Environment, along with First Nations, the British Columbia government and other stakeholders to ensure “we get this right,” he said.
Garneau’s latest consultations have involved the Haida First Nation on Haida Gwaii (previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), followed by discussions with participants in the third annual meeting of British Columbia cabinet ministers and the province’s Native leaders.
To also demonstrate its continued efforts to “develop our economy,” the government has pledged to take measures to expand the role of Canada’s busiest and third-busiest ports at Metro Vancouver and Prince Rupert, which account for about 55 percent and 9 percent of all containerized traffic entering and leaving Canada.
But Trudeau has left little question about his overall objective, declaring again in June that “crude oil supertankers just have no place on the British Columbia north coast,” although he said his government is determined to get “the balance right between building a strong economy and protecting the environment.”
The strategy will include measures to improve marine safety and protect the environment, consistent with British Columbia Premier Christy Clark’s demand for a “world-leading” spill response system.
Garneau told the Vancouver Sun that the north coast ban will have no connection with the government’s anticipated decision later this year on Kinder Morgan’s controversial application to triple capacity on its Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to the Port of Vancouver and Puget Sound to 890,000 barrels per day.
“I’m not linking this to anything,” he said.
