The pristine waters of B.C.’s North Coast have been protected since 1972 by a ban on oil tanker traffic. Yet hundreds of oil tankers a year could soon be navigating the treacherous and frequently stormy waters of the inner B.C. coast.

Enbridge has teamed up with Chinese and Korean oil companies and is ramping up efforts, which include a massive public relations campaign, to push the Gateway megaproject through. This pipeline-and-tanker project would see a river of crude piped from the Alberta tar sands to Kitimat, where it would be transferred onto tankers and shipped through the pristine inland water of BC's Central and North Coast next to the Great Bear Rainforest.

The Gitga'at and other First Nations are strongly opposed to the project. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that First Nations must be consulted and accommodated, and that has not happened.

This is just one example of the six oil and gas and terminal projects for Kitimat and Prince Rupert, which are in various stages of application and approval. All of these proposed projects would necessitate tanker traffic and will carry oil from pipelines leading to the Alberta tar sands, the single largest contributor to Canada’s growing greenhouse gas emissions.

Take action! Write to Premier Campbell and Prime Minister Harper.

Or email the concerned oil company executives here.

Does a Moratorium Exist?

Gary Lunn, the federal Minister of Natural Resources, says the moratorium never really existed, despite a widespread understanding that tankers are banned from the inland coast and references to the moratorium in government documents. Instead, Lunn says there is a “voluntary exclusion zone” for tankers. Former federal Environment Minister David Anderson, who has fought for 35 years for an oil-free coast, says the federal government is engaging in a “sleight of hand.”

Until now, eight Canadian prime ministers have upheld the moratorium. However, more than 20 breaches of the inshore tanker traffic moratorium have occurred since January, 2006. The tankers were carrying condensate, a highly-toxic mixture of imported chemical and petroleum derivatives that is needed to dilute crude oil from the Alberta tar sands so it will flow through pipelines. The tankers were operated by EnCana, Canada’s largest private oil company, and Methanex Corporation, the Canadian company that used the North American Free Trade Agreement to sue the U.S. government for California’s phase-out of the toxin MTBE from gasoline. Read our press release about the breaches.

Oil Spills

Tankers will 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.

Assuming that 320 tankers a year 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.

In 2006, the BC ferry Queen of the North struck a rock 135 kilometres south of Prince Rupert and sank. At 125 metres long, the Queen of the North was less than half the size of the 300-metre Exxon Valdez. About 200,000 litres of diesel fuel remain in the tanks of the sunken ferry.