Dear Editor
Who would have guessed that a B.C. passenger ferry (Queen of the North) would go down at the entrance to Douglas Channel, due to human error.
With the ill-conceived Trans Mountain expansion project, we must wait for that inevitable dilbit spill, while Trans Mountain plans to, unnecessarily, increase – by 700 per cent – dilbit-laden tanker traffic in the very busy B.C. southern waters.
Most agree that oil export is vital for Canada’a economy and for support of our envied social services.
We’re left with just one option, and that is to design our infrastructure to ensure that the probability of a dilbit tanker spill in our busy waters is minimized.
Recall that our prime minister promised to use science when deciding. There’s still time to create a “least risk” tanker routing plan to better protect both southern and northern B.C. waters.
Surely one pipeline system could be built and operated at less cost than the two existing schemes, to accept whatever amount of dilbit Alberta wishes to export from a more science-based, least-risk, infrastructure plan.
Carl Shalansky, by email
