The MP for Skeena – Bulkley Valley introduced his bill to parliament Tuesday calling for a ban on super-tankers on the North Coast.
Nathan Cullen calls it “An Act to Defend the Pacific Northwest” and says it has three main components: including the oil tanker ban, while also forcing the National Energy Board to consider what product is being shipped in making its recommendation, and also increasing the power of local voices when speaking at official hearings into projects like Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline.
“As we experienced through Gateway hearings that regardless of what people said on the ground and how powerful that was, in terms of number and passion, the NEB is not really instructed to take that much into account, and didn’t,” Cullen explains.
Shortly after presenting the bill in parliament, Cullen says he saw an overall positive response.
“Conservatives were more muted,” Cullen notes. “But this is first day, first two minutes of a bill’s life. What happens now is my ability to walk around the halls of parliament, meet with these folks, walk them through it and see if we can’t gain support.”
“There’s no need for this to be a partisan activity, this can be something that parliament can come together on, as we have in the past.”
Cullen will take the bill on tour with stops scheduled for Prince Rupert, Terrace, and Smithers to start, and then branch out across the province.
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