March 24 marked the 20-year anniversary of the Exxon Valdez hitting a reef in Prince William Sound in Alaska and spilling 40 million litres of oil in the water, and North Coast MLA Gary Coons used the events of 1989 to remind provincial politicians of the importance of the unofficial oil tanker moratorium along B.C.’s coastline - specifically in the North.
“Northern B.C. Communities and First Nations are facing crude oil projects through their salmon rivers and oil tankers through their ecologically rich marine waterways and their attempts to push aside a 37-year tanker moratorium along British Columbia’s inside waters, which has survived eight Prime Ministers and nine B.C. Premiers."