Ottawa to provide clarity on B.C.’s tanker ban, minister says

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said on Monday the government is getting close to being able to provide clarity on whether Ottawa would repeal the West Coast oil tanker ban.

Hodgson made the remarks while appearing before the House of Commons committee on natural resources, when he was asked about the status of the legislation prohibiting tankers from carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of crude oil in areas along the Northern coast of British Columbia.

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The tanker ban became law in 2019 under former prime minister Justin Trudeau and has been among the most criticized laws by the government of Alberta.

Hodgson’s remarks come as Ottawa is nearing a memorandum of understanding with Alberta on energy that could include a potential new oil pipeline.

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“We have been talking with that potential proponent, the Government of Alberta. We have been working on, as has been widely reported, a memorandum of understanding. That is a work in process right now,” Hodgson told the committee.

“I think we are getting close to a place, and when that gets done we’ll have some more clarity.”

B.C. Premier David Eby has called on Ottawa to keep the ban in place, and Hodgson has previously said any pipeline through B.C. would need support from the province and First Nations.

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As of now, no company has stepped up willing to build an oil pipeline from Alberta to B.C., but Smith has said her government nevertheless intends to submit a proposal to the Major Projects Office next spring.

Smith said such a deal with the federal government would involve a “grand bargain” which would see the proposed Pathways alliance carbon-capture project move forward alongside a proposed oil pipeline to Canada’s West Coast.

Visiting Ottawa last month, Smith also said she was open to reinforcing Alberta’s industrial carbon price.

When Prime Minister Mark Carney cancelled the consumer carbon price last spring, he did so with a commitment to strengthening the industrial carbon price, which contributes far more to eliminating greenhouse gases than the consumer fuel levy.

Carney has yet to explain how it will be strengthened, but the recent climate competitiveness strategy in the federal budget also committed to doing so.