The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Nov. 21, edition that Transport Minister Marc Garneau's "top-priority" mandate is to work with fellow cabinet ministers to "formalize a moratorium" on crude-oil tanker traffic on British Columbia's North Coast. The Globe's guest columnist Robert Hage writes that this is an old idea to kill Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. Mr. Hage says there are easier ways to stop the pipeline. He says banning tanker traffic opens a Pandora's box of issues with the United States and Canada's historic claims to some of these waters, issues such as freedom of navigation and fishing rights. Yet the new Foreign Affairs Minister was not included in Mr. Garneau's mandated ministerial consultative group. Mr. Hage says if the government wants to stop Northern Gateway, it can simply do so, either by order-in-council or legislation, instead of a tanker ban. Or, it could do what the previous Tory government failed to do, bring together Alberta, B.C., first nations and relevant communities to discuss the sustainable development of the 19 proposed West Coast energy projects. Mr. Hage says the "top priority" might well be to take some time and get this right.