(OTTAWA) - The Green Party of Canada is calling on Transport Minister Marc Garneau to follow through on a Liberal campaign promise to ban oil tanker traffic on B.C.’s north coast following a devastating tug spill last week near Bella Bella:
“Thankfully, the barge was empty of fuel, but this tugboat is now leaking thousands of litres of fuel into the pristine Inside Passage. Green Party member Ingmar Lee warned a spill was a big risk, and now we’ve seen a predictable catastrophe come to fruition,” said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands).
“The Green Party of Canada’s policy lays bare the shockingly lax rules in place to protect our invaluable coastal areas. Minister Garneau needs to act now, listen to the pleas of the Heiltsuk First Nation, and ban U.S. tankers and tug-barge traffic from passing through this sensitive marine environment,” said GPC International Trade Critic Paul Manly.
In August, Greens passed a policy resolution that U.S. tug-barge petroleum traffic be barred from traveling up and down the protected waters of the British Columbia Inside Passage, and be required to travel, by suitable, seaworthy double-hulled vessels safely 20 miles off the BC coast, just as all the other petroleum tanker traffic must do.
The tugboat Nathan E. Stewart – and its attached tanker – sunk in the pristine waters around Bella Bella, B.C. on Oct. 12, leaking thousands of litres of toxic fuel into the waters and seabed and potentially devastating shellfish and other marine life in the area. It had been making weekly trips using a waiver from the Pacific Pilotage Authority that exempted it from the requirement of having Canadian pilots on board. That waiver has since been revoked.
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For additional information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Dan Palmer
Press Secretary | Attaché de presse
dan.palmer@greenparty.ca
m: (613) 614-4916
