Trudeau orders oil tanker ban that could kill Northern Gateway

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a set of fossil fuel directives to his cabinet ministers Friday that included instructions to end oil tankers transits on B.C.’s northern coast — a move that observers say could finally kill the long embattled Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline proposal.

“This ban ends the dangerous Northern Gateway pipeline,” said ForestEthics campaigner Karen Mahon in Vancouver.

“Without tankers, crude oil has no place to go — and that means no pipelines, no oil trains moving tar sands to the northern BC coast.”

The controversial pipeline has been dogged for years by protests, opposition at federal pipeline hearings, and powerful Indigenous resistance.

In October, eight B.C. First Nations went to federal court to in a legal attack to stop the project. The coalition hopes to overturn the previous Harper government's conditional approval of the project in June 2014. A total of 18 First Nations lawsuits were filed.

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said Friday he was pleased the Liberals fulfilled the tanker ban promise made in the election.

'Northern Gateway proposal dead in the water'

"Without a means to convey the bitumen to Asian markets, Enrbridge's Northern Gateway's proposal is literally dead in the water," said Grand Chief Phillip.