Dear Cheryl,
If we want to prevent an even bigger oil spill from devastating Vancouver's waters, we need to act now.
Call on Conservative MPs to restore funding to the Kits Coast Guard station, and to ban increased tanker traffic. |
By now you’ve probably seen the heart-breaking images of oil-soaked birds and of toxic sludge washing up on Vancouver’s beaches. Details about this week’s tragic oil spill in English Bay are still coming in, but this much is clear: the response was mishandled, and the Harper government’s cuts made a bad situation worse.
Emergency responders had to come from Richmond because the Harper government closed the Kitsilano Coast Guard station in 2013. It took crews over 6 hours to arrive on the scene and deploy absorbent booms whereas responders from the Kitsilano base could have been on site with the right equipment in 6 minutes. [1]
If we aren’t prepared to respond to a relatively small spill in near-perfect weather, imagine what could happen if the government approves plans to bring hundreds of massive tankers carrying tarsands oil and LNG through Vancouver’s waters. We can’t take that chance.
With an election looming, Conservative MPs are especially sensitive to public perception. If we raise our voices together now, we can expose how the Harper government’s negligence turned this spill into a tragedy, and demand action to make sure this never happens again.
Click here to sign our petition calling on Conservative MPs to restore funding to the Kitsilano Coast Guard station, and reject plans to expand tanker traffic in B.C.
Emergency responders had to come from Richmond because the Harper government closed the Kitsilano Coast Guard station in 2013. It took crews over 6 hours to arrive on the scene and deploy absorbent booms whereas responders from the Kitsilano base could have been on site with the right equipment in 6 minutes. [1]
If we aren’t prepared to respond to a relatively small spill in near-perfect weather, imagine what could happen if the government approves plans to bring hundreds of massive tankers carrying tarsands oil and LNG through Vancouver’s waters. We can’t take that chance.
With an election looming, Conservative MPs are especially sensitive to public perception. If we raise our voices together now, we can expose how the Harper government’s negligence turned this spill into a tragedy, and demand action to make sure this never happens again.
Click here to sign our petition calling on Conservative MPs to restore funding to the Kitsilano Coast Guard station, and reject plans to expand tanker traffic in B.C.
The tragedy unfolding in English Bay is a wake-up call. For years, the Harper Conservatives have been promising “world-class” oil spill response capacity -- but this week’s spill shows that was nothing but a convenient soundbite.
Canada’s Environment Commissioner warned the government in 2010 that Canada’s oil spill response plans were out-of-date and that the Coast Guard was not prepared to deal with a major oil spill. Three years later, the Conservatives closed the Kitsilano Coast Guard station, making an already-bad situation even worse. [2]
If the government approves plans to bring hundreds of huge tarsands oil tankers through Vancouver’s waters each year, they’d be inviting a disaster on the scale of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. We need to speak up.
Call on Conservative MPs to re-open the Kitsilano Coast Guard station and ban increased tanker traffic. Sign the petition now.http://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/never-again-protect-vancouver-from-oil-spills
We’re in this together,
Jolan, Jamie, Rodrigo and the Leadnow.ca team
p.s. With a federal election just around the corner, MPs know they could lose their seats if they take the wrong side on an important issue. If enough of us speak out now, we can force Conservative MPs in the Vancouver area to make a tough choice: agree to our demands, or risk losing the election. Add your voice now.
[1] Now-closed Kisilano Coast Guard Base would have responded to oil spill instantly (Vancity Buzz).http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/04/now-closed-kitsilano-coast-guard-base-responded-oil-spill-instantly/
[2] Canada not prepared for major oil spill: Report (CTV News). http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada-not-prepared-for-major-oil-spill-report-1.583453