B.C. urges Ottawa to maintain oil tanker moratorium

Key Takeaways:

• BC’s premier and Indigenous/coastal leaders signed a North Coast Protection Declaration urging Ottawa to keep the 2019 Oil Tanker Moratorium Act in place
• Signatories say the Great Bear Rainforest–driven conservation economy supports thousands of jobs and billions in value, and that a crude spill would jeopardize livelihoods for generations
• Lifting the ban could revive crude pipeline and terminal proposals similar to Northern Gateway, while LNG projects like LNG Canada, Cedar LNG and Ksi Lisims are unaffected because LNG is exempt

The Whole Story:

B.C. Premier David Eby joined leaders from Coastal First Nations and tourism groups Wednesday to sign a “North Coast Protection Declaration” urging Ottawa to keep in place the federal oil-tanker moratorium on the province’s northern coast, calling it a pillar of a growing conservation economy and a safeguard against crude-oil spills.

The declaration — signed by Eby; Chief Marilyn Slett, president of Coastal First Nations; Mayor Garry Reece of Lax Kw’alaams; Jason Alsop, president of the Haida Nation; Paula Amos of Indigenous Tourism BC; and hereditary elder Clarence Innis — states that “protecting our coast is not a barrier to economic prosperity – it is the source of it,” and warns that repealing the moratorium would “risk near-term major projects” and threaten “generations of lost livelihoods” if a spill occurred. Organizers cited jobs and businesses tied to the Great Bear Rainforest agreements and a “multibillion-dollar” conservation economy built on fisheries, tourism, renewable energy and stewardship.

The Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, passed in 2019, prohibits oil tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tonnes of crude or other persistent oils from docking, loading or unloading along B.C.’s North Coast — including Hecate Strait, Dixon Entrance and Queen Charlotte Sound. The law does not apply to non-persistent products such as gasoline, jet fuel or liquefied natural gas.

Supporters of the moratorium point to the region’s decade-long economic shift following the Great Bear Rainforest accords, which they say has created more than 1,400 permanent jobs and 140 businesses, expanding Indigenous Guardian programs and nature-based tourism across the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii.

The push to reaffirm the ban comes as Alberta calls for its repeal to enable crude exports from a new pipeline to a North Pacific terminal, a concept floated by Premier Danielle Smith’s government this fall. Eby has argued that lifting the moratorium could jeopardize billions in active or imminent projects tied to the coastal conservation and tourism economy.

If Ottawa were to lift the ban, it could reopen the door to large construction proposals on the North Coast, including a crude-oil pipeline corridor and a marine export terminal at Kitimat or Prince Rupert — projects similar in scope to the cancelled Northern Gateway pipeline and terminal, which was rejected in 2016 before the moratorium became law. By contrast, current energy megaprojects in the region — LNG Canada, Cedar LNG and Ksi Lisims LNG — move liquefied natural gas and are not restricted by the tanker moratorium because LNG is a non-persistent product under federal rules.

“The oil tanker ban is the result of over 50 years of advocacy from First Nations and coastal communities,” the declaration reads, adding that the 2019 law “codified a longstanding commitment” to protect “one of the most ecologically and culturally rich marine regions on Earth.”

Signatories concluded: “We choose: Our Economy. Our Coast.”