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A de facto moratorium was proclaimed by parliament almost 50 years ago after initial controversy over the shipment of oil out of Alaska.

Legislation “formalizing” the ban was introduced two years ago by the federal Liberals, following up their opposition to the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

The bill has passed the House of Commons and is before the Senate, where the committee on transport and communications has been holding hearings on possible changes.

Those hearings, which were in Terrace on Wednesday, provided the pretext for the statement from Heyman.

But there was no overlooking the juxtaposition with political events on the other side of the Rockies.

For Bill C-48 is the same piece of federal legislation that was denounced earlier this month by Alberta’s NDP Premier Rachel Notley.

“There is a glaring double standard when it comes to this law,” she told the Senate committee. “This is not a tanker ban, it is an Alberta ban.”

She grounded her concern in the way the bill was deliberately crafted to block the shipment of Alberta oil and other petroleum products from the northeast coast of B.C.

Ottawa has contemplated no such ban on tanker shipments of oil through the St. Lawrence Seaway or to and from the east coast.

“No country produces its energy resources as safely and with the kind of attention to the climate as we do in Alberta,” she told the senate committee. “Bill C-48 is a disincentive to the very kind of investment we need to attract to Alberta.