Everybody loves a good storyteller and I’m no exception. Last week, I listened to some of the live streaming of the Enbridge hearings from Kitimaat, the First Nations village a few clicks outside the company town of Kitimat in northwest B.C. It was the tail end of the first day and the Haisla’s Chief Councillor, Ellis Ross, was telling...

UPDATE (Jan. 11, 2011): View Enbridge’s current marine response plan Better late than never, I’ve been plugging my way through the marine side of Enbridge’s application to bring supertankers into B.C.’s northwestern waters. Last weekend, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I saw Enbridge’s huge advert in The Vancouver...

By Alison Bate I must admit I was a little surprised not to get a straight answer from Transport Canada at first about the number of tug escorts traveling with condensate tankers into Kitimat. I assumed it was clearly set down in the legislation whether tankers carrying this kind of hydrocarbon mixture required tug escorts and, if so, how...

By Alison Bate What would happen if a tanker on its way to Kitimat collided with a tug in the scenic Inside Passage? According to the author of a new report, major flaws would be exposed in the way marine accidents are handled here in British Columbia. “Nobody is essentially watching the store – at least not the whole...