Friends of Wild Salmon Presents to Transport Committee on Tanker Ban

Alongside Sierra Club BC and West Coast Environmental Law, Friends of Wild Salmon Chair, Des Nobels, presented to the Transport Committee in Ottawa that is reviewing Bill C-48, The Oil Tanker Moratorium Act.

Over many decades, most recently in opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway project, northern communities and Indigenous nations have repeatedly demonstrated a clear resolve to keep the waters of northern British Columbia permanently free from oil tankers.

Bill C-48 would prohibit any vessel carrying more than 12,500 tonnes of crude or persistent oil from using any port or marine installation on BC’s north coast in Hecate Strait, Dixon Entrance and Queen Charlotte Sound. 

FOWS expressed our strong support for the bill and made a couple recommendations. One is in relation to the Ministerial exemption provision. This broad power to exempt oil tankers from the Bill’s prohibitions could in future be used to circumvent the Bill’s very purpose. The second was to the threshold of 12,500 metric tonnes. We believe it is important that coastal communities needs be met but believe that can be done under a threshold of 2,000 tonnes.

Pictured from left to right: Caitlyn Vernon (Sierra Club BC), Gavin Smith (West Coast Environmental Law), Des Nobels (Friends of Wild Salmon)

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