The federal government is pledging $1.2 billion in new investments to safeguard Canadian waters from increased tanker traffic, including developing a response plan to protect whales and other marine mammals from oil spills.

Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement in Vancouver on Tuesday, days before he’s expected to advance a project to build a new pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast.

Most of the funding ($740 million) is allocated towards concrete measures to safeguard Canadian waters. This include support for incident prevention measures, expanding the Canadian Coast Guard’s capacity, extending very high frequency radio and radar coverage, developing a national high-resolution nearshore forecasting system and establishing a new environmental recovery framework.

Another $136 million is being directed towards protecting whales, including a marine mammal specific oil spill response plan and improving efforts to mitigate underwater noise.

The remaining $186 million is focused on West Coast-specific measures including supporting the Northern Shelf Bioregion Reconciliation Framework Agreements, which are aimed at protecting the Great Bear Sea region. There’s also a commitment to investing in Indigenous-led stewardship and restoration of the Lower Fraser River Estuary.

The rollout of these new ocean protection measures closely resembles the Trudeau government’s gameplan in approving the Trans Mountain Pipeline in 2016.

Days before that project was given the green light, the Liberals unveiled the $1.5 billion Oceans Protection Plan which included enhanced measures to protect against oil spills and restoration of some Canadian Coast Guard services on the West Coast.

READ MORE: West Coast pipeline set for national interest designation Thursday, sources say

iPolitics reported earlier today that the federal Liberal government is preparing to designate a proposed West Coast pipeline as a project of national importance on Thursday.

This new proposed pipeline will essentially twin the route of the existing TMX line.

More to come…