Public safety at heart of need for oil pipelines, says Metro Vancouver Tory MP

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s B.C. lieutenant said he’s confident a new oilsands pipeline will eventually be built to the West Coast, and one of his key arguments for such a megaproject is public safety in the Lower Mainland.

Industry Minister James Moore raised the spectre of the deadly Lac Megantic rail disaster that killed dozens in an inferno of blazing oil that engulfed the Quebec town in the summer of 2013.

“The people of Lac Megantic wished they had pipelines instead of rail,” said Moore, who represents the Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam riding.

He pointed to the huge rail yard that is in the heart of Port Coquitlam and is the second-largest employer in his riding. He said an increasing number of trains are arriving there carrying diluted bitumen crude that has no other way to get to foreign markets.

“It’s very dangerous for the Lower Mainland ... to have the massive spike in rail transfer of dangerous goods,” he said.