From the Vancouver Sun – April 18, 2011

by Mark Kennedy

Conservative leader Stephen Harper says a re-elected Tory government
will not impose a legally binding ban on oil tanker traffic on the West
Coast of Canada.

Harper made the statement Sunday in response to questions from a reporter at a campaign event in Vancouver.

“I think we have been very clear on this,” said Harper.

“We
will only allow tanker traffic if we can be sure that tanker traffic is
safe. But will we ever say that we cannot have the same kind of
commerce on the West Coast as on the East Coast? Of course we’re never
going to rule out those opportunities for our country.”

Harper said he wants to “see the day” when Canada is able to continue to increase trade with Asia.

“So we’re not going to create artificial bans on the West Coast that don’t exist in other parts of the country.”

Currently,
the Canadian and U.S. coast guards have a nonbinding agreement between
themselves and the U.S. tanker industry. It was designed to lower the
risk of an oil tanker running aground off the coast of British Columbia.

The
zone, which runs from southern Alaska to the southern tip of Vancouver
Island, applies to tankers carrying oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline
to ports along the U.S. west coast.

The Conservatives have
resisted pressure from opposition MPs and environmentalists to give the
voluntary ban some teeth. The opposition parties teamed up in December
to pass an NDP motion calling on the government to legislate a ban on
tankers near the rich ecosystem of Haida Gwaii, formerly called the
Queen Charlotte Islands.

Earlier this year, the Harper government
insisted the exclusion zone is closely policed to make sure no oil
tanker traffic comes down the inside passage.

But the Canadian
Coast Guard concedes that its radar systems can only monitor tanker
traffic in the southern portion of the zone, as tankers approach the
Juan de Fuca strait between Vancouver Island and Washington State.

The coast guard must therefore rely heavily on the tanker industry to accurately report the whereabouts of vessels.

Tanker
traffic along the B.C. coast is expected to increase as energy
producers in Canada look to ship more oil and gas to growing Asian
markets.

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