To the editor:
Few details have been made public about the proposed Canada East pipeline to convert a 40-year old, thin-walled gas pipeline into an oil pipeline carrying highly corrosive and toxic bitumen and bitumen diluting chemicals from Alberta to Eastern Canada.
This proposal requires a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the federal government only after it has undergone thorough assessment and public review, which it has not.
MP Ron Cannan’s recent column in the Capital News (Pipeline Energy Projects Offer Economic Opportunities, Aug. 20) praising the economic benefits of this oil pipeline is both premature and highly prejudicial.
Cannan supports the project based entirely on the company’s unverified claims of multi-billion dollar capital costs and community benefits despite the fact that the long-term social, economic, environmental and public health costs needed to mitigate negative impacts from the project have not been assessed and reviewed by either the company or the federal government.
Cannan’s role as an MP has clearly changed and needs to be questioned. By over-zealously supporting this project before it has undergone due public process, assessment and review, he has put corporate interests above public interests.
This change begs the question: Is Cannan really sitting in Ottawa as an MP representing his riding constituents or as an unregistered oil industry lobbyist?
Richard Drinnan,
Kelowna
