He's saying some of the right things. It's a start.
Prime minister Trudeau has announced a 5-year, 1.5 billion dollar programme to upgrade responses to tanker and oil spills on all three of our coasts.
Trudeau said the funding over five years will include creating a marine safety system, restoring marine ecosystems and research into oil spill cleanup methods.
He called it "the most significant investment ever made to protect our oceans and coastlines."
The announcement, made with Transport Minister Marc Garneau, comes after the minister spent Sunday touring a site on B.C.'s Central Coast where a tugboat ran aground and sank more than three weeks ago, releasing thousands of litres of diesel and lubricants into the water.
"The ongoing incident at Bella Bella is unacceptable," said Trudeau, referring to the spill. "It's time for a change."
Of course the devil is in the details. Let's get the oil spill cleanup problem tackled first and then talk supertankers. I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of research and little result years after Trudeau has an armada of dilbit supertankers plying the B.C. coast. This is one of those hot button items that seems tailor made for weasel words and wiggle room.
Unless Trudeau produces some pretty impressive, concrete actions leading to real solutions, the announcement is probably little more than dinner and a movie before the screwing. We had enough of that from Harper's gang.
