The B.C. government, along with First Nations groups, signed the North Coast Protection Declaration on Wednesday morning, asking the federal government to uphold the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act.
Bill C-48 bans ships that hold more than 12,500 metric tons of oil from waters off the north of B.C.’s coast.
It includes the area from the northernmost point of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border.
“For generations, communities have built and sustained the economy of the North Coast – a legacy that continues today through a multibillion-dollar, sustainable conservation economy that supports thousands of livelihoods in fisheries, tourism, renewable energy and stewardship,” B.C. Premier David Eby said in a statement.
“Protecting our coast is not a barrier to economic prosperity – it is the source of it.”
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In the 2025 federal election, the Conservative party pledged to repeal the act if it were elected.
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Federal government imposing moratorium on tanker traffic on BC coast
Eby; Chief Marilyn Slett, president of the Coastal First Nations; Mayor Garry Reece, Lax Kw’alaams; Jason Alsop, president of the Haida Nation; Paula Amos with Indigenous Tourism B.C.; and Clarence Innis, hereditary elder, all signed the declaration.
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Eby said repealing the tanker ban would “risk” near-term major projects and the consequence of a crude oil spill in those waters would be “generations of lost livelihoods and irreversible ecological damage.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wants the tanker ban to be repealed as part of her government’s proposal to build an oil pipeline to the B.C. coast.
Slett said the ban is a result of 50 years of advocacy by coastal communities and is “foundational” to keeping the coast healthy and the economy strong.
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“We will never stop fighting to preserve our cultural and our spiritual way of life and the coastal wildlife and ecosystems that we depend on,” she said.
This area of the province is also home to the Great Bear Rainforest, which covers 6.4 million hectares on British Columbia’s north and central coast.
“Formalized into law in 2019, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act did not create this protection – it codified a longstanding commitment that has kept one of the most ecologically and culturally rich marine regions on Earth safe from the threat of crude-oil spills,” Eby said.
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‘Un-Canadian’: Alberta’s Danielle Smith blasts B.C. Premier Eby’s pipeline project criticism
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Eby said his government has underlined in multiple meetings with federal ministers and with Prime Minister Mark Carney that the oil tanker ban is a “foundational and critical catalyst” for economic activity in British Columbia.
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‘What I’ve heard the federal government say is that they will not advance projects over the objections of the provincial governments or First Nations through the major projects office or otherwise,” he said.
“I think it’s pretty clear today that there is no support for lifting that tanker ban in the province of British Columbia.”
Eby has maintained that Smith’s proposed pipeline lacks a proponent, financial backing and a route, and has referred to it as “wedge politics.”
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Smith’s office said in a statement on Wednesday that “The federal government has control over interprovincial trade and commerce, and the reason for that is so a single parochial premier cannot block the export of the most valuable asset of five million Albertans.”
“The decision to build this pipeline lies solely with Prime Minister Mark Carney and the federal government, and we expect him to act decisively and in support of this project.”
B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad said the announcement on Wednesday was “another attempt to block economic progress” in the province.
“Rather than advancing nation-building energy projects to diversify markets, create thousands of skilled jobs, and deliver prosperity for our province, the NDP continue to discourage investment,” Rustad said in a statement.
“While other countries develop infrastructure and secure long-term prosperity, David Eby allowed B.C. to fall behind based on an ideological refusal to let our resources compete with the rest of the world.”
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— with files from Ashley Joannou in Vancouver and Jack Farrell in Edmonton with The Canadian Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
