MP's can use their summer to contemplate a "Tanker ban" bill

"We hope that the Conservative government will see that it is passed, which is what the polls tell us that a strong majority of British Columbians want."-- Charles Campbell of the Dogwood Initiative in Victoria, saluting a British Columbia MP for her private members bill designed to eliminate oil tanker traffic in coastal waters.

Catherine Bell, the MP for Northern Vancouver Island introduced a private members bill to Parliament just before the House of Commons adjourned for their summer vacation.

Bell's bill would have oil tanker traffic prohibited from waters of Hecate Strait, Dixon Entrance and Queen Charlotte Sound, a move that would enshrine the voluntary ban that is apparently in place with a more formal edict excluding tankers from coastal waters in British Columbia.

The Living Oceans Society were quick to applaud her efforts with a press release saluting the goals of Bill C-571 and to push home the urgency in which they feel the matter needs to be addressed, they also provide an interesting animation presentation that shows the effect of an oil spill on North Coast and Queen Charlotte waters.

However, before anyone pops a cork in celebration, or yells out in frustration at another roadblock for industry we should all keep one thing in mind, it's rare that a private member's bill ever sees the light of day once its journey begins, let alone finds itself turned into a law.

The debate will no doubt carry on past this summer's intermission from politics on Parliament Hill and one day there very well may be a ban on tanker traffic and exclusion zones effectively put in place by legislation.

But for Madam Bell's efforts we suspect that there's a more likely chance of gas returning to 1 dollar a litre than there is for her bill in its current form as introduced last week, ever becoming law.

The Daily News provided some background on her quest for the ban, featuring the details of her proposed legislation, as the front page story in Tuesday's paper.

OIL FEARS PROMPT CALL FOR TANKER EXCLUSION ZONE
Vancouver Island MP wants assurances oil tankers will not cross B. C.'s coastal waters
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Pages one and two

With the United States looking at offshore drilling to solve its oil crisis, a federal MP from Northern Vancouver Island has introduced a bill that would ban oil tankers from moving through the Hecate Strait.

Last week, just before the House of Commons finished up for the summer, Catherine Bell, NDP Member of Parliament (Vancouver Island North), introduced a private members bill that would prohibit oil tankers from the Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and the Queen Charlotte Sound.

"Given the obvious threat that crude oil tanker traffic represents to B.C.'s marine ecology and the economic sectors that depend on it, like fisheries and tourism, the introduction of this legislation is an extremely important development in Ottawa," said Oonagh O'Connor, Energy Campaign Manager for the Living Oceans Society.

Currently, Canada has a voluntary agreement with United States not to move tankers through the strait; however despite public perception to the contrary, the federal government insists there's no official ban on tanker traffic.

"This legislation ensures that what has been the status quo for over 30 years will be maintained," said Charles Campbell of the Dogwood Initiative in Victoria. "Ms. Bell should be congratulated for tabling a law that will protect the economic and ecological value of B.C.'s coast. We hope that the Conservative government will see that it is passed, which is what the polls tell us that a strong majority of British Columbians want."

Earlier this month, U.S. president George Bush urged Congress to end a ban on offshore oil drilling, responding to consumer anxiety about record-high gasoline prices. With average U.S. pump prices piercing the $4-a-gallon level for the first time this month, up more than $1 from a year ago, energy policy has become a key issue in the presidential race ahead of the November elections.

Bush said opening federal lands off the U.S. coast - where oil drilling has been banned by both a presidential executive order and a congressional moratorium - could yield about 18 billion barrels of oil.

That would meet current U.S. consumption for about two and a half years, but it would likely take a decade or more to find the oil and produce it.

But of more immediate concern to environmental groups is the Gateway project.

They have been ramping up a campaign lobbying the federal government to implement a ban ever since Enbridge, a Calgary-based pipeline company, brought its plans for an oil terminal in Kitimat back off the shelf.

The project, anticipated to be operational between 2012 and 2014, would see twin pipelines run from the Alberta oilsands to Kitimat in order to supply Asian markets. Enbridge has already spent between $80 and $100 million developing the project.