Americas News
Canada Orders West Coast Tanker Ban
In-line with one of its election platform promises, Canada's new Liberal government has moved to implement a ban on crude oil tankers along the country's West Coast, a recently released directive to the country's new Minister of Transport Marc Garneau has revealed.
In the mandate letter, new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directed the Transport Ministry to "Formalize a moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia's North Coast" - a region that includes a number of ports including Prince Rupert and Kitimat.
Trudeau further instructed the Transport Ministry to collaborate with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, the Minister of Natural Resources, and the Minister of Environment in drafting the moratorium.
No details are available yet on the exact nature of the tanker ban, but the measure is likely to have important implications for planned energy projects on Canada's west coast such as the Northern Gateway pipeline.
The Northern Gateway project was designed to move bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to the coastal town of Kitimat, for export across the Pacific.
The project's developer Enbridge won approval from Canada's federal government for the development in June 2014.
Prior to Canada's federal elections this October, Prime Minister Trudeau had pledged to reverse Northern Gateway's approval.
Canadian environmental groups were reported to have said the tanker ban effectively "ends" the project because "crude oil has no place to go".
Enbridge announced that it still plans to go ahead with the project, and said it will seek to "sit down with the new prime minister and his cabinet to provide an update on the progress".
A number of liquefied natural gas export developments have also been proposed for the area around the port of Kitimat.
Last month, Ship & Bunker reported that the recent Liberal majority win appeared to add heft to Trudeau's ability to push through the proposed tanker ban.
