Dear Editor:
The front page North Shore News story of Dec. 11 notes that eight mayors have signed a letter to the National Energy Board seeking public consultation on future pipeline plans to Kinder Morgan's oil exporting facility in Burnaby.
I certainly agree with such public consultation.
However, the implication in the North Shore News story that tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet is unsafe is incorrect.
To protect against oil spills, all tankers are double-hulled, they follow a strictly prescribed route only during daylight hours through Burrard Inlet with a pilot on board and shadowed all the way by one or more tugs.
Our Burrard Inlet maritime industries are crucial to the local and Canadian economy and employ thousands of people in good paying jobs delivering the products we all use in our everyday lives, and to customers in other countries.
More concern should be applied to the risk of tanker trucks plying our streets to deliver gasoline and diesel to filling stations for the cars we all drive, instead of worrying about the tanker ships in Burrard Inlet.
Doug Ausman North Vancouver
