Keep the Ban on Oil Tanker Traffic

A ban on inland oil tanker traffic has existed for more than 35 years. Maintaining the 1972 federal moratorium on tanker traffic through BC's inland waters will help protect our oceans, coastline and wildlife from devastating oil spills.

Although eight Canadian prime ministers have upheld the moratorium, the BC government is lobbying the federal Conservative government to revoke the ban.

If 320 tankers a year were to travel through the unpredictable waters of Hectate Strait, Queen Charlotte Sound and the Douglas Channel, industry averages suggest that a “moderate” spill of more than 159,000 litres will occur every two to three years. A “major” spill of more than 1,590,000 litres is likely to occur every six to seven years.  When the U.S. tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, it spilled 41 million litres of oil—one-sixth of the oil it carried--and polluted 2,000 kilometres of coastline.  More than half a million seabirds were killed, along with almost 3,000 sea otters, 250 bald eagles, and billions of salmon and herring eggs.

Tankers would travel through grey whale migratory routes, through feeding grounds for humpback and orca whales, and past more than 600 salmon-spawning rivers. A single oil spill could devastate the coastal communities and First Nations that rely on tourism and fishing.