It’s B.C. “versus” Canada on the pipeline – why?
It seems strange and disappointing to me that discussion around Kinder Morgan pipeline focusses on: a) protecting the B.C. coast; and b) B.C. indigenous rights, appearing to pit B.C. against the economy of Alberta and Canada. Whatever happened to everyone’s concern for the climate footprint we impose upon everyone’s grandchildren?
It can be said that we mustn’t shut down fossil carbon right away; we need to transition. It can be said Albertans need a pipeline to the coast. But Alberta has a pipeline to the coast. It’s operated every day by Kinder Morgan. The TransMountain debate is all about massively increasing (seven-fold or more) our rate of carbon export just when we claim to need to transition away – by the way of trampling indigenous rights and risking coastal life.
Why is the debate not about all Canadians holding government to account for harm to our grandchildren and everyone’s future? Will we be seen as the country which, when it was time to move (albeit slowly) away from fossil carbon, decided “oh no, we should make as much money as possible as fast as possible increasing our rate of sales.” Is that the legacy all Canadians, not only in B.C., want?
Greg Holloway
Saanich
