Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to join my B.C. New Democrat colleagues today as we present 57,000 signatures on a petition concerning the protection of the pristine coastal waters of British Columbia forever.
As others have noticed, there has been a moratorium on oil tanker traffic since 1972, but the petitioners feel very strongly--and this is a very strong sentiment in British Columbia--that it is time to strengthen the oil tanker moratorium and turn it from policy into law.
The petitioners call on the government to legislate a ban on oil tankers to protect our coast forever.
We thank the Dogwood Initiative for the tremendous work it has done in gathering so many thousands of petitions that truly reflect the sentiment in British Columbia.