Vancouver Quadra Liberal MP Joyce Murray wants to keep oil tankers the size of three football fields away from the north coast of the Island.
The former B.C. environment minister was in town Wednesday to promote Bill C-606, which legislates a tanker ban on B.C.’s north coast. She said the area presents a dangerous route for tanker traffic in terms of shallow waters, strong tides and unpredictable weather.
"Think about it at a time when there could be 100 km/h winds, with waves that are several stories high,” Murray said before a small crowd at Comox Centre Mall. The crowd included Vancouver Island North federal Liberal candidate Mike Holland.
During a two-day campaign of the Island, Murray also spoke about the bill in Campbell River, Parksville, Nanaimo, Cowichan Bay and Victoria. She then toured northern B.C.
Bill C-606 formalizes former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s 1972 moratorium on oil tankers in waters around Haida Gwaii known as Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. The waters are home to an ecosystem that supports thousands of people in the region.
Murray said an oil spill would jeopardize some of the 56,000 jobs on the coast, and impact wildlife.
She refers to Bill C-606 as "pro-sustainable economic development.
"We do have to make choices about where and how we develop so that we can have both development and jobs, and we can protect our ecosystem for the next generation."
Murray said eight out of 10 British Columbians want the area protected from oil tankers.
She claims the Harper government and members of parliament are not listening to pleas to safeguard B.C.’s coast against the threat of an oil spill. According to the Liberals, the Conservative government says a moratorium does not exist on the north coast and insists safeguards are in place to prevent and clean up an oil spill.
The Tories have said a federal moratorium is in place that applies strictly to oil and natural gas exploration, and development activities.
A December statement from the Ottawa office of Vancouver Island North Conservative MP John Duncan said the federal government has "rigorous standards in place for tanker traffic.
"If any company breaks the rules we will hold them to account."
According to the Liberals, Bill C-606 does not prevent the transport of diesel and oil products to other B.C. communities. Nor does it affect oil shipments to Asia and the U.S. through the Port of Vancouver, or other routes to international markets.
The bill will be debated for second reading at the end of March.
For more information, visit www.joycemurray.ca/support-c606/.
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com