Skeena NDP MP Nathan Cullen is not surprised by comments made by the Pacific Pilotage Association CEO reported in the Sentinel last week.

Kevin Obermeyer, president and CEO of the PPA and several other marine experts were in town on Thursday, October 15 to discuss concerns regarding the channel’s future with mayor Joanne Monaghan and city councillors Randy Halyk and Richard McLaren.

At the time Obermeyer told them the chance of a potential oil spill here in the future is nil. “There should never be an incident,” he said, adding that the level of safety associated with an oil tanker is very reassuring.

Recalling conversations he had with pilots a few years ago, Cullen said, “Their orientation is trying to figure out ways to make something possible, that’s what they do.”

He added they get ships into “tight places” and “make shipping as safe as possible, that’s their job.”

While conceding that logistically it is always possible to get tankers into Kitimat, his questions remained whether it would be safe over a period of 50 to 100 years and whether it was desirable from the communities’ perspective.

“Is it something we want to take a chance on?”

On the statement that the chances of a spill in the Douglas Channel was nil, Cullen responded, “Keep in mind the Douglas Channel has never been my concern, that’s actually a straight stretch of water. I’m much more concerned about the hairpin turns that these tankers are meant to make.”

From plans he had heard from Enbridge to date - he talked to company officials just last Wednesday - both the pilots and tethered tugs would come into play only “at a certain point”.

Asked where Enbridge had told him the pilots and tugs would be picked up, Cullen said, “They mostly talked about the tugs being at the point you hit the Douglas Channel.”

As for pilots, he said when a pilot boards a vessel and when “the pilot is actually doing the work varies. That has to be laid out in the company’s plan.”

And in the end the question still remained, “Is it a risk these communities want to take on?”