Opinion: Why no oil tanker bans for Quebec? (Calgary Herald – December 15, 2018)

https://calgaryherald.com/

Bill C-48, currently before the Senate, proposes to ban Canadian oil tanker transport for northern portions of Canada’s West Coast.

Canadians, particularly those 160,000 unemployed Albertans who face an increasingly bleak festive season, may recall the outrage and protests that accompanied the proposal for Energy East, a 4,600-kilometre, $12-billion oil pipeline designed to carry 1.1 million barrels per day of oilsands crude from Alberta to refineries on the East Coast for export overseas.

The now-defunct proposal by TransCanada included an oil tanker terminal to be constructed at Cacouna, Que. In the face of mounting protests, then-premier Philippe Couillard advocated against the proposed terminal.

After government recognized St. Lawrence River beluga whale populations as an endangered species, in April 2015 TransCanada abandoned the proposed construction of the Cacouna terminal.

Does this mean that tanker traffic inbound with foreign oil products do not affect St. Lawrence beluga populations, or present significant environmental concerns to Canadian waters, while proposed outbound Canadian oil traffic does?

For the rest of this opinion column: https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-no-oil-tanker-bans-for-quebec