Pipeline foes should urge that refineries be built in Canada

After joining my first ocean- going ship as a boy of 16, I sailed the world for over a quarter century. My wife spent almost 14 years at sea. That’s about 40 years of experience on all kinds of freighters, petroleum product tankers and crude oil supertankers.

We never experienced any oil spills; all cargoes were handled under strict regulations, with great care and expertise, at a time when tankers were not doublehulled and navigational equipment and aids were far less sophisticated.

It causes us trepidation to hear wellmeaning folk express the “inevitability of a catastrophic oil spill on our pristine coast” should tankers be allowed to transport bitumen from Kitimat if the Enbridge pipeline is completed.

It would be foolish to say that there would never be an accident; history shows transportation involving machines and humans is always fraught with danger. However, maybe protesters’ energy would be better utilized urging governments to insist refineries be built in Canada.

Pipelines would then carry petroleum products such as gasoline or diesel for export, rather than bitumen. Building and operating refineries would provide employment, and shipping refined products would be far safer and more profitable.

A product spill from either pipeline or tanker would make for a far easier cleanup than bitumen that would sink to the bottom of rivers crossed by the pipeline, or the ocean.

There are many more discussions to be had, like building the pipeline terminal at Prince Rupert for easier access to the ocean, before we succumb to the “inevitability” propaganda.

Vancouver harbour has had tanker traffic since 1915 ( 97 years) and the refinery at Burnaby has supplied petroleum products to Vancouver Island and other ports along our coast by tanker and barges since 1935. BERNIE SMITH Parksville