Editor:
I agree with Prime Minister Stephen Harper that Canada needs to open up new markets in Asia. But Alberta shipping bitumen overseas is comparable to B.C. selling trees with the branches still attached.
There would be a lot more value and a lot less volume if this oil was refined in Canada.
A train derailment could be an ecological disaster but a ruptured super tanker spewing bitumen on our coast would be a mega disaster.
Improvements need to be made to our rail system. The trains kill too many moose and they run off the tracks too often.
The oil industry can find five billion dollars for a pipeline that transports raw resources for export. Perhaps investing some money into the rail line and shipping distilled oil products would make the pipeline and super tankers unnecessary.
Raymond Betemps
