VANCOUVER, B.C. — An estimated 400 oil tankers a year are likely coming to inland waters of the Salish Sea and the Strait of Juan de Fuca shared by Washington and British Columbia.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported prospects for a giant Canadian oil pipeline and export terminal just east of Vancouver surged Tuesday with a second Canadian court ruling of 2020, this time sharply rebuffing native groups opposing the project.
The Federal Court of Appeals threw out a challenge by Aboriginal First Nations groups, saying the Canadian government has engaged in “reasonable and meaningful consultation.”
The decision follows by weeks a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that the British Columbia government cannot regulate or block the passage of bitumen crude oil from Alberta.
The oil would then be exported via 400 tanker trips a year.
The oil-laden tankers would pass out through Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet and English Bay, move through Haro Strait between the San Juan and Gulf islands, and exit to the Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The tankers would traverse international waters and prime habitat for the endangered Southern Resident orca population and migration routes for salmon runs bound for Puget Sound rivers and British Columbia’s Fraser River.
