I'll preface my remarks by pointing out that I'm not a marine biologist or a chemical engineer.
My understanding is that crude products, particularly bitumen, are particularly harmful to the marine ecology and particularly challenging to recover by authorities entrusted with cleanup operations. I think, at a minimum, those products cannot be permitted.
My understanding is that as the refining process is advanced, the opportunities for the product evaporating or being recovered in other ways increase, so there could be some rationale...but generally I think we have to strengthen regulations of the transport of all petroleum products, including the refined products you mentioned.
I do have a brief comment in relation to your first question.
Certainly the absence of proper sewage treatment infrastructure in the core area of the capital region is a major problem. For 40 years, federal and provincial authorities allowed greater Victoria to dump raw sewage into the Juan de Fuca Strait. About two-thirds of our population rely on this unacceptable situation. One-third of our population of the region is covered by about 10 waste-water treatment plants.
Fortunately, the previous Government of Canada pledged approximately a quarter of a billion dollars to build proper waste-water infrastructure for the core area. This commitment was honoured by the current government, and construction is now under way for a proper tertiary waste-water treatment system for the core area of greater Victoria.
I want to acknowledge the contribution by both of those governments to this vital partnership to clean up the marine environment.