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CALGARY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government is following through on an election promise to ban crude oil tanker traffic off the coast of northern British Columbia, a move which observers say would effectively kill the Northern Gateway pipeline.

Trudeau published his mandate letters to each of member of his cabinet Friday and asked Transport Minister Marc Garneau to “formalize a moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s North Coast, working in collaboration with the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to develop an approach.”

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Vancouver-based energy lawyer with Watson Goepel LLP Warren Brazier said a moratorium on crude tankers off B.C.’s North Coast “would impact, definitely, the Gateway project.”

Photo by DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Enbridge, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, received regulatory approval for its 1,100-kilometre pipeline between Alberta and Kitimat, B.C. in 2014. The company had been planning to build a pipeline at a cost of $7.9 billion to export unrefined crude oil off the coast of B.C.

Brazier said the way the mandate letter is worded, there could still be room to export refined crude oil from the North Coast as B.C. newspaper executive David Black has proposed with his Kitimat Clean project.

Garneau did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

gmorgan@nationalpost.com

Twitter.com/geoffreymorgan