Transportation Minister Rob Fleming told reporters on Thursday that refined fuel is being barged in from the U.S. to help maintain fuel supplies. The government ordered gas stations to make sure they have their reserves until December 1 as it looks to bring fuel from as far away as Oregon and California. We apologize, but this video didn't load.
You can see other videos from our team by tapping here. Two U.S.-flagged fuel tankers called Vision and Florida have arrived in Vancouver from Washington state ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show that British Columbia has been flooded with flood-ravaged fuel from the U.S. Both were heading toward the open ocean from Puget Sound when they turned sharp right to venture toward Vancouver. U.S. flagged tankers typically don't make deliveries to non-U. The data shows that neither of the ships had sailed into foreign ports last year because of higher costs versus foreign tankers. The Canadian Fuels Association, representing the transportation fuel industry, didn't respond immediately to a request for comment.
British Columbia, a major route to Asia and home to Canada's largest port, is trying to restore transit links and the movement of goods after floods and mudslides forced thousands of evacuations, washed away sections of highways and damaged railways. Gasoline sales have been rationed in the Vancouver area, while critical exports such as lumber and grain are backed up, unable to get to the Port of Vancouver. Fresh rains pummelled the coastal region on Thursday, the first of three big storms to arrive with increasing intensity through Tuesday, which could complicate recovery efforts. The time to prepare is now, said Mike Farnworth, British Columbia's minister of public safety, urging residents to storm-proof homes, clear gutters and stock up on emergency supplies. Travel restrictions are in place as a result of a state of emergency imposed earlier this month.
Only 20 westbound trains have moved, and only a fraction of them are bulk grain trains, Sobkowich said. The grain elevator system in the nation is about 75 per cent full, and all that grain is ready to move, he said. Canadian National Railway Co. said trains resumed moving Wednesday between Vancouver and Prince George, about 500 kilometres to the north. The corridor from Canada's third-largest city east to Kamloops will remain closed due to new weather related issues, CN spokesman Jonathan Abecassis said in an email. Trans Mountain is working to resume operations on the Alberta-to-Vancous pipeline, a key supplier of both oil and fuel to the region. The company, which said as recently as Wednesday that it was optimistic the line could be restarted in some capacity by the end of the week, did not provide a restart timeline in Thursday s update.