“If we’re going to play a role in the global oil trading markets, the best way to get our products to market, our oil products to market, is in a pipeline, not on a train.”

The statement from Saskatchewan Environment Minister Dustin Duncan when he spoke with Discover Weyburn late last week. The comment came while discussing the impacts of the Guernsey train derailment earlier this month. The spill leaked over a million litres of oil and burned for days while firefighters sought to bring it under control. It was also the second derailment in the area in a matter of months. 

Duncan said the derailment itself illustrates the need to have pipelines in place to get oil to market, as there are a number of issues with using trains to move oil in the country.

“It’s not efficient, it’s dangerous, spills like this happen,” Duncan elaborated. “We think that, while imperfect, pipelines are a better method of transporting oil.”

In addition to the safety and environmental concerns of trains, Duncan pointed out with resources forming a substantial part of our economy, moving oil to a pipeline could help in other areas. He said oil is taking up parts of the limited space on a train that could be used to move agricultural and potash products to market.

The call for a move to pipelines is also being head as a number of railways and other infrastructure needs are being blockaded across the country in protest of a number of concerns, ranging from an LNG pipeline in British Columbia, to how the RCMP are handling the various protests. 

The derailment near Guernsey also had an immediate impact on rail transport across the country. It was announced a ministerial order would limit the speed trains carrying dangerous goods could travel shortly after the train derailed. Since then, the limits have been relaxed slightly, but are still well below where trains would normally travel.