Canada’s Senate has voted not to accept a report from its transportation and communications committee that was sharply critical of Bill C-48, legislation to formalize a moratorium on oil tanker traffic in northern B.C. waters.

The vote means that the bill will now proceed to third reading at the Senate’s next sitting.

The report was rejected by a vote of 53 to 38, with a single abstentions.

Conservatives and a handful of independent senators were among those who voted in its favour, while the bulk independents and Liberal senators voted against it.

The report, which was written by Conservative senators, argued that Bill C-48 should be defeated because it would lead to divisions across Canada and trigger resentment among Indigenous communities.

However, senators were taken aback at what they saw as a partisan tone to the report,

Independent senators who are opposed to Bill C-48 had urged fellow members of the red chamber to reject the report.

Had senators voted to accept the report, they would have killed Bill C-48 right then and there.

The report came after the transportation and communications committee passed a motion recommending that the Senate not go ahead with that bill last month.

It was meant to explain why senators came to that decision.

If passed, Bill C-48 would enact the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, which would keep oil tankers that can carry over 12,500 metric tonnes of crude oil or persistent oil from “stopping or unloading crude oil or persistent oil, at ports or marine installations located along British Columbia’s north coast from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaska border.”

“The Act prohibits loading if it would result in the oil tanker carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of those oils as cargo,” according to the bill’s text.

The bill would also establish an “administration and enforcement regime that includes requirements to provide information and to follow directions and that provides for penalties of up to a maximum of $5 million.”

Transport Minister Marc Garneau, who has sponsored the bill, said the federal government is “committed to demonstrating a clean environment and a strong economy can go hand in hand” when it was first introduced.

The bill has, however, met with opposition from people such as Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who has said he will push for the Senate to reject it altogether.

Opponents of Bill C-48 have said the legislation would make it difficult to approve energy megaprojects.

The report’s rejection doesn’t mean that the bill has been passed, however.

Bill C-48 will now move to third reading, where senators can talk about amending the legislation.

Conservative senators have argued that Garneau already told the committee the federal government won’t take changes to the bill.

Though Sen. Peter Harder, the government’s representative in the red chamber, has said Garneau would listen to amendments that were within the bill’s spirit.

• With files from The Canadian Press

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