Irving was never a heavy oil refinery.

The Come-by-Chance refinery in Newfoundland used to refine Venezuelan many, many years ago.  It's now 90% under contract to BP to refine their oil for export markets, and it's not licensed to sell refined products in Canada except about 10% in Newfoundland (about 10,000 bbl/day) for which they have been buying Newfoundland oil since that has been economical.

The main thing I've learned from the debate over Energy East is westerners don't know much about refining, markets, or the O&G industry in eastern Canada.