Liberals keep B.C. oil tanker ban in place, vote down Conservative bill

The Liberal government has voted to keep the B.C. oil tanker ban place, defeating a Conservative bill that would have repealed it.

MPs voted along party lines during second reading in the House of Commons today, with only the Conservatives voting to move the bill forward to the committee stage.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, who made a rare appearance after question period to vote in person on several bills today, struck a deal with the B.C. government earlier this summer to keep the ban in place.

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The existing law, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, prohibits tankers from carrying more than 12,500 metric tonnes of crude oil in areas along the northern coast of British Columbia.

The Conservatives have argued the law is undermining Canada’s prosperity by limiting the potential for oil exports from B.C.’s northern coast to international markets.

Alberta originally envisioned that the proposed Pacific Link oil pipeline would export from the northern coast, but the route was revised this summer to go south to respect the ban.