Just as the political wrangling over who will form B.C.’s next government begins, Ottawa is planning to unveil an oil tanker ban on the West Coast.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau has notified the House of Commons that he will introduce a bill entitled, ‘An Act respecting the regulation of vessels that transport crude oil or persistent oil to or from ports or marine installations located along British Columbia’s north coast’. Notices of this type typically mean legislation will be introduced within a few days.

The federal Liberals gave themselves a spring deadline to bring forward a bill, after promising during the 2015 election campaign to ban crude oil tankers off B.C.’s Pacific coast.

The bill comes immediately after a tight election in B.C. that puts the Liberals in a minority government position with the Green Party holding the balance of power. The latest figures gave the Liberals 43 seats, the NDP 41 and the Greens 3. Absentee ballots, which could swing several ridings, have yet to be counted.

The federal government has a big stake in keeping the status quo in B.C. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supports major resource development projects that Liberal Premier Christy Clark has also supported — like the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, liquified-natural gas projects and the Site C hydro facility.

During the campaign, federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr’s office said he would seriously consider a surprise mid-election request by Clark to ban U.S. coal exports from Vancouver ports. Some have already called those statements an intervention to help Clark.

All eyes are on Green Leader Andrew Weaver as he decides whether to support Clark or the NDP’s John Horgan.

Preliminary documents released in the fall said that the ban would cover the northern part of the coast — a region encompassing Queen Charlotte Sound, the Hecate Strait and the Dixon Entrance along the maritime border with the Alaskan panhandle.

The tanker ban would cover partially upgraded bitumen, crude oil and bunker fuel — but would exempt liquefied natural gas (LNG), gasoline and propane, according to federal government.

The northern B.C. region has faced considerable uncertainty in recent years as crude oil and LNG projects have been proposed and, in some cases, approved.

The federal Liberals cancelled the most controversial of those — Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway crude oil pipeline — in November after the project was stopped by the courts for not properly consulting First Nations along its route.

Ottawa approved the Pacific Northwest LNG project in September.

One of the reasons for issuing the ban, according to documents, is to protect the Great Bear rainforest.

The ban will complement the existing Tanker Exclusion Zone, which asks industry to voluntarily avoid shipping crude in northern B.C. It does not apply to tankers travelling to or from Canadian ports.

The ban is part of a package of policies that the Liberals consider important to the environmentally-sensitive politics of B.C. In the fall, they announced a $1.5 billion Oceans Protection Plan.

The government approved Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline in November, which ends in the Port of Vancouver.