Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to scrap the federal tanker ban ahead of Wednesday’s vote, arguing it blocks a proposal to export 250,000 barrels of Canadian oil daily.
“Repeal the Liberal tanker ban,” Poilievre wrote on X. “Let’s get shipping oil by rail to Prince Rupert in the next two years.”
Poilievre and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are backing Conservative MP David McKenzie’s Bill C-264, which would repeal the tanker ban along B.C.’s northern coast.
Calgary-based Strathcona Resources proposes shipping oil by rail to Prince Rupert for overseas export, potentially within two years, pending approvals.
Carney, however, pledged in July to maintain the tanker ban under a B.C. agreement, despite plans for a new West Coast pipeline.
“The Canada-B.C. agreement will maintain the federal North Coast tanker ban in accordance with a proposed route of a new trans-provincial pipeline under the bilateral agreement with Canada and Alberta,” Carney told reporters at the time.
