OTTAWA — A Liberal MP and former Trudeau-era cabinet minister says the oil tanker ban the party legislated off British Columbia’s northern coast was out of “huge public demand” and predicts that the debate around the possibility of lifting it will be controversial.

Karina Gould spoke to reporters on her way into the Liberals’ weekly caucus meeting, while Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith continue to negotiate the terms of a new relationship surrounding energy policy. Smith is pushing for a path for a new bitumen pipeline to run from her province to B.C.’s northwest coast, which would require an outright lifting or carveout of the federal moratorium on tanker traffic.

“It was something we put in place because there was a huge public demand for it and it’s impo

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