By Ian Holmes

Nanaimo MP Malcolmson says Trudeau’s ocean protection plan light on details

Nov 7, 2016 | 4:45 PM

NANAIMO — Reaction is pouring in after the federal government announced a $1.5-billion ocean protection plan that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says will make Canada a world leader in protecting our coast lines.

Trudeau announced the funding over five years, which includes creating a marine safety system, restoring marine ecosystems, and spending on oil spill cleanup research and methods. While Nanaimo-Ladysmith NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson is pleased more money is being made available, she says it’s unclear what kind of impact it will have.

“The devil’s in the details, absolutely around whether the government is going to regulate response times, and whether they’ll establish oil booming equipment,” said Malcolmson.

Malcolmson says oil spill response times are a key pillar that the NDP would like to see implemented into protecting Canada’s marine environment.

“We’ve been looking at countries around the world that all have tighter regulations, Americans have much tighter regulations on response times than Canada does,” said Malcolmson. “The regulatory side is really where we need to get at this.”

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The announcement comes a day after a barge flipped and sank not far from the site on B.C.’s central coast where a tug ran aground last month, spilling more than 100,000 litres of diesel fuel from its tanks.

The plan also sets the stage for the possible approval of the $6.8-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Trudeau’s cabinet is expected to announce a decision on the project by Dec. 19. The expansion would triple the bitumen-carrying capacity of the pipeline from near Edmonton to Burnaby and increase the number of tankers leaving Vancouver-area waters seven-fold. B.C. Premier Christy Clark has long insisted that her government would not allow new heavy oil pipelines unless five conditions were met, including a “world leading” spill response regime. The provincial and federal governments have been in talks to develop a West Coast marine spill response system for much of the past year. The B.C. government identified 11 gaps that needed to be filled, including clarification on the Liberals’ election promise of a moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic off the northern B.C. Coast. Asked why the plan makes no mention of a tanker ban, Trudeau said there would be more to say in the coming weeks.

Peter McCartney, a climate campaigner with The Wilderness Committee, says the spill response measures announced will not be effective in a spill from a tar sands tanker.

“If the Prime Minister thinks that this will change people’s minds about this pipeline, he’s grossly mistaken,” said McCartney. “People know that this is all just window dressing and they want to see this pipeline rejected, so I hope they do the right thing.”

– With files from The Canadian Press –