Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to present two petitions signed by petitioners on Vancouver Island, the Southern and Northern Gulf Islands, the north coast of British Columbia, the Lower Mainland, Surrey, downtown Vancouver and throughout the entire province.
The petitioners urge the government to finally invoke a legislated moratorium and ban on tanker traffic on B.C.'s north coast and finally put into law a moratorium on offshore drilling off our pristine coast.
For many years, the current government and the one before sought all sorts of devious ways to undermine the expressed will of the people of British Columbia who, in poll after poll, more than 80% said that they did not want oil tanker traffic off their north coast and did not want drilling in their waters.
Thee petitioners have brought this petition to the House of Commons both for economic and environmental reasons. It is about time that the B.C. Conservatives and the Conservative Party at large listened to the residents of British Columbia and followed their wishes expressly on tanker traffic.