Oil Tankers

Oil tankers have been banned from traveling along British Columbia’s coast since 1972. For the past few years the oil industry and B.C.’s provincial government have been trying to have the moratorium lifted.

Proposed oil tanker routes through the Inside Passage to Kitimat. Open jpg of map.

In fact, the moratorium has been ignored since early 2006 as tankers carrying condensate have traveled through the Inside Passage to Kitimat, B.C. Condensate is a highly flammable hydrocarbon used to thin the tar-like oil extracted from the tar sands. It is classified as a dangerous good by the federal government and is so toxic that it kills marine life on contact.

The reason government and industry are keen to allow tanker traffic in coastal waters is because extracting oil from Alberta's tar sands is now considered financially viable by some companies due to a rise in world oil prices. Planned expansion of the Alberta tar sands has resulted in at least six proposed pipeline mega-projects that would see oil tanker port terminals built in Kitimat or Prince Rupert. If these projects proceed, we could soon see up to 300 oil tankers traveling through North Coast waters every year.

A spill from even one of these tankers could cause devastation to marine species and their habitat with significant ecological and economic impacts for coastal communities.