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The previous bills proposed banning tankers sailing within the defined waters of what is known as Canada’s “Fishing Zone 3,” stretching from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaska Panhandle. Bill C-48, on the other hand, prohibits tankers carrying crude oil from entering or leaving ports in the same area. In focusing on the use of Canadian ports, the government has avoided a possible confrontation with the United States, which has protested Canada’s claim that Fishing Zone 3 constitutes Canadian internal waters. The rather odd result under the new bill is that tankers carrying crude can still ply these waters as long as they do not enter or leave from a Canadian port. The legislation does not apply to tankers transporting refined oil.

The previous bills proposed banning tankers sailing within the defined waters

This, in turn, raises the question why such legislation is required at all. It does not apply to B.C.’s southern waters including the Strait of Juan de Fuca used by Alaskan crude oil tankers headed for Puget Sound or to the Port of Vancouver/Burnaby, the site of the Kinder-Morgan tanker terminal now approved by the federal government. Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project was cancelled by the government this year. In sum, the only pipeline and terminal project the Moratorium Act would affect is the First Nations’ Eagle Spirit Energy Corridor.

On December 9, 2015, Helen Johnson, chair of the Chiefs’ Council, wrote to Trudeau to request an urgent meeting to discuss the proposed moratorium legislation. She stated the government’s “unilateral tanker moratorium…did not involve consultation with First Nations who have been stewards of the lands and waters since time immemorial and who have a right to access economic opportunities on our lands.” No meeting took place. Almost a year later the Lax Kw’ Alaams Hereditary Chiefs asked the Prime Minister’s Office for consultations before implementing a moratorium. They underlined the importance of environmental protection while meeting their social and economic needs in an area with 90 per cent unemployment. Again, no meeting.