Saturday, April 1, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Vancouver Sun: The record favours allowing oil tanker traffic

March 16, 2012
in In the Media, Latest News
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A

March 16, 2012 – In today’s Vancouver Sun, MLI’s Brian Lee Crowley and Jason Clemens write about the environmental, economic and legal impact of banning oil tankers on the West Coast. According to Crowley and Clemens, “The loss of jobs and income to Canadians and conflict with the U.S. that would be occasioned by a ban are totally disproportionate to the tiny risk responsible oil tanker traffic poses.” The full column is copied below and also appeared in the Calgary Herald. It is based on MLI’s recently released report, Making oil and water mix: Oil tanker traffic on Canada’s West Coast, by Philip John, Roland Priddle and Robert Hage.

In addition to this coverage, Lorne Gunter highlighted the report in a column he wrote for the National Post today. Click here to read the full piece.

 

The record favours allowing oil tanker traffic

By Brian Lee Crowley and Jason Clemens, Vancouver Sun, March 16, 2012

American political game-playing on the Keystone XL pipeline has rightly shifted attention to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to the west coast. But the Pacific solution to getting Canada’s oilsands production to market is also subject to great uncertainty, including uncertainties that are receiving little attention.

Northern Gateway faces two key vulnerabilities. First is the uncertainty of politicized regulatory hearings that will determine if and how the pipeline is built. Thousands have signed up to give “evidence,” mostly their feelings about the oilsands, internal combustion engines, the sacredness of pristine environments and the evils of oil companies. Layered on top is the vocal opposition of numerous aboriginal organizations, mostly positioning themselves, rightly, to get a share of the jobs and income to come.

Little attention, however, is being focused on the other vulnerability, one the environmental movement already has in its sights: whether oil tankers will be allowed to ply their trade in B.C. coastal waters. A pipeline that cannot disgorge the oil into ships and send it on its way to Asia will not be built and there would be little point in expanding the existing pipeline to Vancouver or to consider shipment by rail either.

Opponents are already at work. A tanker ban would be largely federal jurisdiction, so opposition MPs from B.C. have repeatedly tabled private member’s bills to enact a ban. There is one before the Commons today.

Under the current federal government, such legislation stands little chance, but that could change. Governments come and go, and approval for Northern Gateway will almost certainly take longer than the life of any Parliament.

Moreover, there is a serious risk of the environmentalists winning a weighty political ally: the B.C. government. Premier Christy Clark has let it be known that the issue most often raised on the doorstep in her byelection campaign was the desirability of a tanker ban. The premier remains cautiously pro-development, but the New Democrats are well ahead in the polls for an election that is 15 months away. An NDP win would almost certainly create a less welcoming environment for tanker traffic. Given the various provincial approvals that a pipeline and allied port and other infrastructure developments may require, B.C.’s opposition would be a major obstacle.

That makes it imperative to examine the arguments in favour of a ban. The Macdonald-Laurier Institute thus commissioned three papers by leading experts examining the environmental, economic and legal arguments. The conclusion? There is little reason to support banning oil tanker traffic and many good reasons for opposing it.

Take the environmental argument, for example. This is surely the one that will swing the most weight with Canadians, especially in B.C. The idea of a major spill in the beautiful waterways off the coast is indeed frightening. How likely is it, though?

Canada has a lot of experience with managing oil tanker traffic successfully in sensitive waterways. The Irving oil refinery, for example, brings virtually its entire feedstock in by tanker through the Bay of Fundy, a stunningly beautiful body of water. No talk of tanker bans there. How about the St. Lawrence River, the heartland of ecologically conscious Quebec? Oil and petroleum products are constantly shipped there in large quantities, including to feed major oil refineries near Quebec City and Montreal. Newfoundland’s burgeoning offshore oil industry only exists thanks to tankers.

Canada’s record of managing this traffic safely is peerless. The number of maritime oil spills over the last 30 years declined from a high of 18 in the 1980s to six during the 1990s, to none in the 2000s. Only the Netherlands and Sweden can match Canada’s record in the last decade, a record due not to chance, but to a tremendous effort to ensure that economic activity in ecologically sensitive areas is carried out responsibly under the most demanding and stringent conditions. Moreover, shipping produces the lowest greenhouse gas emissions of all modes of transport.

The economic consequences of a ban would be huge. According to energy economist Roland Priddle, who used the most conservative assumptions, over 30 years Northern Gateway would see Canada’s GNP increase by $270 billion, labour incomes go up by $48 billion and government revenues rise by $81 billion, while 558,000 person-years of work would be created.

Finally, a tanker ban would inevitably fall afoul of competing Canadian and United States jurisdictional claims over west coast waters, not least because a number of Alaskan communities get their oil from tankers and can only be reached through the disputed waters.

The loss of jobs and income to Canadians and conflict with the U.S. that would be occasioned by a ban are totally disproportionate to the tiny risk responsible oil tanker traffic poses.

Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and Jason Clemens, director of research, are co-editors of a recent publication, Making Oil and Water Mix: Oil Tanker Traffic on Canada’s West Coast.

 

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Previous Post

MLI’s work on corporate income taxes in Canada highlighted in the U.S.

Next Post

New Video: Balancing the federal budget in one easy lesson

Related Posts

Does the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline hurt Indigenous people? Yes: Stephen Buffalo in the Toronto Star
Columns

Is Alberta Oil Ethical? Heather Exner-Pirot in Alberta Views

March 31, 2023
Canada’s rising carbon tax, energy prices and the Supreme Court: Andrew Roman for Inside Policy
Inside Policy

Canada’s rising carbon tax, energy prices and the Supreme Court: Andrew Roman for Inside Policy

March 31, 2023
Another found of trade negotiations with the US: How to avoid surprises – Lawrence L. Herman for Inside Policy
Inside Policy

Another found of trade negotiations with the US: How to avoid surprises – Lawrence L. Herman for Inside Policy

March 31, 2023
Next Post
New Video: Balancing the federal budget in one easy lesson

New Video: Balancing the federal budget in one easy lesson

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
    • Women’s History Month Fundraiser
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy Program
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Annual Reports
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.