Madam Speaker, I personally think the member opposite's trust is misplaced. The commitments that were made by the Prime Minister in the election campaign were extremely clear: no mega projects without a social licence; first nations consent; and a new review for the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which was not done. Those are all broken promises.

I want to talk specifically about the Salish Sea located in my riding between Vancouver and Vancouver Island. It was identified by the tanker safety expert panel in 2003, which was a Transport Canada study. It said that the waters around the southern tip of Vancouver Island were one of four areas in Canada with the highest probability of a large oil spill. The south coast of BC, including Vancouver Island, was one of two areas in Canada with the highest potential impact from a spill.

A report done by the Royal Society of Canada identified that there was insufficient research on how to respond to bitumen if spilled into the marine environment. The report said the “potential long-term damage to the environment, waterfowl and furbearing animals is greater. Cleanup of heavy oils and bitumens is extremely difficult for both marine and inland spills because of their specific gravity, viscosity, flash point properties and high asphaltene content.”

In 2013, the Harper government said that it was going to conduct scientific research on bitumen in the marine environment. Then there was the much lauded oceans protection plan in November 2016. The Liberal government announced it would conduct research to better understand how different petroleum products behaved in Canada's marine environment. None of this work has been done. The response times remain unchanged. The research is still not done.

How can that British Columbia member continue to support this pipeline knowing the threat that it poses to our shared waters?

Sheila Malcolmson

Transcript

Emergency Debate

Discussions (0)