Using rail as opposed to pipelines to ship oilsands products to the coast is under further scrutiny following a deadly explosion in Quebec on Saturday.
A train carrying light oil derailed and exploded in the small town of Lac-Megantic, killing at least 13 people with dozens more still missing. The cause of the derailment hasn't been determined.
Shipping oilsands products to northern B.C. ports has been floated as an alternative if the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline isn't built, but ForestEthics Advocacy tar sands campaign director Ben West said the weekend incident raises alarm bells.
"I think it's hard for either the pipeline or rail companies to try to show that they have something that resembles a quality safety record," he said in an interview from Fort McMurray, Alta. "It doesn't take much to look at the history of pipeline spills and rail incidents to see that neither one of these is something that could be called safe."
Both rail and pipeline advocates point to the fact that more than 99.9 per cent of the products shipped through their systems are done so safely and both industries are looking to expand their capacity to transport oilsands products as extraction has increased.
When pipeline spills occur they have the potential to cause severe environmental damage, but rail crashes can have a similar effect as many rail lines are close to rivers and other bodies of water.
Currently CN Rail doesn't ship any crude oil through Prince George, according to company spokesman Mark Hallman. However the company does transport other hazardous materials in the region.
Hallman touted the company's infrastructure improvement and employee training programs and said CN had a "very strong" safety record in 2012.
He said the derailment and explosion in Quebec, operated by a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic railway, was a "highly unusual incident."
"This tragedy notwithstanding, movement of hazardous material by rail not only can be, but is being handled safely in the vast majority of instances," Hallman wrote an in email.
West is calling for tighter regulations and more safety inspections to ensure Canada's rail system is indeed up to recognized standards.
Getting Canadian crude oil to diversified market is a priority for the federal government, in addition to the Northern Gateway pipeline, which hopes to connect the oilsands with Kitimat. Other projects like an expansion of the oilsands-to-Burnaby Kinder Morgan pipeline and a rail line to Alaska are being explored.
Northern Gateway spokesman Ivan Giesbrecht called the derailment in Quebec a tragedy, but declined to speculate on what the incident would mean to the future of the rail or pipeline industries.
"The incident is a reminder to all of us in the energy sector to always remain vigilant in ensuring the highest levels of safety in all of our operations," he said.
