Canada's Tanker Ban: Time to Reconsider

A private member's bill, C-264, is set to be debated in the House of Commons on May 26. The bill proposes the repeal of the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, a ban that has been in place since 2019.

Kenneth Green, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, argues that there was never a legitimate reason for the tanker ban to be implemented in the first place. He cites a study by his organization from 2017, which found that there have been no major spills from oil tankers or other vessels in Canadian waters since the mid-1990s.

The government's own study estimates that a major spill of over 10,000 tonnes is likely to occur once every 242 years. Green suggests that this makes the tanker ban unnecessary and argues that it was actually designed to stop pipelines, specifically the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline project.

However, with the recent Memorandum of Understanding signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, a new pipeline from Alberta to B.C. is being proposed. This would allow Canadian oil to be exported to Asia and other countries, potentially breaking the U.S. monopoly on buying Canadian oil.