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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?

Natural Resources Canada reports that in 2016, Canada imported crude oil and equivalents from many countries, including Saudi Arabia (nine per cent), Algeria (nine per cent), Nigeria (eight per cent) and Norway (four per cent), with much of the product entering Canada through ports in Quebec, a province that consumes over 350,000 barrels per day of gasoline and diesel fuels, representing approximately 20 per cent of total Canadian oil demand. Quebec receives 25 million tonnes of crude oil and various petroleum products of which 89 per cent enters through ports in Quebec City and Montreal.

More broadly, Transport Canada estimates that there are approximately 20,000 oil tanker movements off the coasts of Canada each year. The Clear Seas Centre for Responsible Marine Shipping calculated that annual Canadian oil transported on the Pacific Coast amounts to six million tonnes, while U.S. oil tankers that transit through those Canadian waters transport six times as much, at 37 million tonnes. The estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence import, largely through the ports of Montreal and Quebec City, receive 67 million tonnes.

While Alberta faces material fiscal challenges associated with access to international oil markets, there are palpable signs of a return to the alienation that has, in the past, led to a questioning of the basic tenants, and fairness, of Confederation. Recent comments by Quebec Premier François Legault questioning the “social acceptability” of pipelines that pass through the province while choosing to “refuse dirty energy while we are offering clean energy at a competitive price” have done little to assuage such western sensibilities. Perversely, the Trudeau government’s avowed transition away from fossil fuels appears to be having the effect of solely penalizing Canadian producers. Current policies, expressed in Bill C-48 have contributed to the belief that the Trudeau government is over-regulating domestic oil producers with misdirected policies that allow foreign petroleum imports — unimpeded by Canadian environmental laws, so-called “social licence,” greenhouse gas reduction strategies and associated carbon taxes — to enter Canada with a competitive advantage. Meanwhile, Canadian exporters are mired in more regulations and court challenges. A material consequence is that Canadian investment is being actively discouraged. Worse, these contradictory, often hypocritical, policies now increasingly appear not only to threaten Canadian unity but the laudable objectives for aboriginal reconciliation.