Data collected by a Simon Fraser University professor shows that tanker traffic in Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet has increased tenfold since the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline came online this summer.
According to David Huntley, a professor emeritus at SFU’s physics department, publicly available data shows that an average of two tankers loaded oil from Trans Mountain’s Westridge Marine Terminal until May of this year.
However, in June and July, the numbers increased to an average of 20 tankers a month, with Huntley saying a similar number is in the cards for August.
The professor’s data has been corroborated by Trans Mountain, which told CBC News in an email that it has loaded 65 vessels since the pipeline finished its expansion project in May, and large volumes of oil began flowing from the Alberta oilsands to the Port of Vancouver.
The steep rise in tanker traffic is raising alarm among activists and the B.C. government, who both say they are concerned about the effects of an oil spill in Metro Vancouver’s waterways and shorelines.
“It’s a very sudden change, which, of course, is to be expected because there’s an awful lot more oil [that] can be sent down the pipe,” Huntley said.
The $34-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has been controversial ever since the federal government bought it in 2018, with the project set to nearly triple the flow of crude oil from Alberta to Canada’s Pacific Coast to around 890,000 barrels per day.
Pipeline production volumes will increase gradually until it is running at full capacity in 2025-2026, Trans Mountain said in March.
The B.C. government wants Ottawa to update its emergency response plans in the event of a catastrophic oil spill. The call comes as oil tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet has increased substantially. As Jon Hernandez explains, oil exports are surging in the wake of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion.
Protests over tanker traffic increase
On Sunday, environmentalists protested the increasing tanker traffic in Vancouver due to the oil shipments.
“This company and this government are willing to put the people here at risk because they want more profits. This is morally repugnant,” said Tim Takaro, an SFU professor emeritus of health sciences, who has previously been jailed for his protests against the pipeline.
“We demand that the government stop shipping these tankers through these waters until there is a plan to protect the people. And to be honest with you, that plan, of course, must include the end of the fossil energy industry here in Canada.”
In a section on its website, Trans Mountain says it is working with the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) to prevent spills.
The WCMRC says it has over 200 responders and 80 vessels ready to jump into action in the event of a spill and multiple response bases operating 24/7.
Province butts heads with Ottawa
However, it’s not just activists raising concerns over the impacts of a potential oil spill on Vancouver’s coastline.
The provincial government, which took its opposition to the pipeline all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, has said that WCMRC’s plan has not been updated since 2021.
George Heyman, the provincial environment minister, says the B.C. government has written a letter to Ottawa asking it to review the pipeline project’s spill mitigation plans.
“We don’t know that the plan has been suitably updated. We have not received a response to our letter,” Heyman told Stephen Quinn, the host of CBC’s The Early Edition.
“I understand why people want the traffic flow of tankers to remain at a low level until certainty is given. We can’t do that,” Heyman added. “Only the federal government through Transport Canada can do that.”
CBC News contacted Transport Canada for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
