Keeping Tankers Out of BC’s North Coast - Preventing the Next Exxon Valdez - 2009

British Columbia’s north coast oil tanker moratorium, covers the Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound – the waters between Alaska, Haida Gwaii and Vancouver Island . The federal government used its authority over shipping to ban oil tankers in 1972, triggered by widespread concerns over oil spills. Coastal First Nations, the public and the provincial government believed the risks of oil spills from tankers servicing the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system were unacceptably high due to the treacherous nature of BC’s Inside Passage. The moratorium was designed to safeguard the vibrant ecosystems and economies along the coast from such potential disasters. The oil tanker ban was not passed into legislation, but the has been respected for the last 37 years. Now the tanker ban is at risk, as oil tankers are being proposed on the coast. To protect the coast, Ottawa’s ban on tankers must be made into law.