The Vancouver Sun reports in its Saturday edition Wednesday's oil spill serves as a cautionary tale in advance of decisions regarding Enbridge's Northern Gateway project and an expansion of the TransMountain pipeline into Burnaby. A Sun editorial says British Columbians are understandably nervous about those plans because of the possibility of spills. Oil shipments have been moving through Port Metro Vancouver for years without any spills, but, as this week's mishap demonstrates, accidents happen. Thus it is crucial to have emergency responses and remedial procedures well in place. It is worth noting that bulk carrier ships like the one believed to have leaked the toxic, highly polluting bunker fuel generally are not built to the standards of a modern supertanker. Officers aboard the MV Marathassa, a Cyprus-registered bulk grain carrier, are not keen to take responsibility for the spill. Also, a succession of delays that occurred in dealing with the spill are raising eyebrows. It took three hours for the Coast Guard to start containing the area, five hours to board the offending vessel, and seven hours to place a boom around the ship. What if the spill were in the remote North Coast?