Topic: Shipping Economic Impacts

Without marine shipping Canada would be a different place economically. Marine shipping opens up Canada’s markets to the world.

Essentially, any product or item in your life or house that came from outside of North America was probably transported by a ship.

The ports across Canada that handle oil tankers include: Vancouver, Quebec City, Montreal, Saint John, NB, Port Hawkesbury, NS, Come-by-Chance, NF and Newfoundland offshore.

Since the 1970s the number of oil spills 7 tonnes or more has decreased from a high of more than 120.

Canada has four marine oil spill response organizations for its oceans and waterways including the Western Canadian Marine Response Organization, the Eastern Canadian Marine Response Organization, Point Tupper Marine Services and the Atlantic Environmental Response Team.

Oil transported as cargo in Canadian waters by region. Some 192 million tonnes are transported on the Atlantic coast compared to 6 million tonnes on the Pacific Coast.

There are five principle sizes of oil tankers. In ascending order based on size, the smallest is the Panamax, Aframax, Suezmax, VLCC and the ULCC.

Oil tankers are very easy to spot and identify compared to other ships that are sailing the seas and visiting Canada’s ports.