Trans Mountain pipeline good for province, country
Over the last few weeks, the foreign funded anti oil movement has been ramping up their campaign in media including, apparently, in the Cowichan Valley Citizen. This barrage against the vital TMX project, as usual, contains nothing but propaganda and misinformation.
Although it has been totally mishandled by Horgan and Trudeau, the expansion project is well under construction. It’s moving forward despite constant opposition from the largely foreign funded anti oil sands agenda, and activist politicians provincial and federal.
Horgan is partially responsible due to his big toolbox and full support of the activists, and Trudeau because of his incompetence and initial lack of interest in any western Canadian oil venture. Once KM gave him an ultimatum to stop the interference with the project, Trudeau panicked and bought it for billions in a blink, one of the few things he is good at.
Regardless of ownership, the project remains an essential part of our resource infrastructure and will provide thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue for the west and the rest of the country. (Ref: Conference Board of Canada Jan. 6, 2016)
The benefits aren’t just fiscal.
• Increased transportation safety. The pipeline will greatly reduce the amount oil currently transported by rail along some of our major rivers. Pipelines are 4.5 times safer than rail transport of flammable liquids.
• Increase refined fuel product delivery to the lower mainland through the old line, eliminating the need to buy gas and diesel from U.S. refineries with a 75 cent dollar.
• The money generated by our natural resources is pumped back into the economy and paid to our government as royalties and increased taxes. That is the money that pays for our social service net, medicare and other government services. The loss of revenue from our pipelines would hurt Canadian prosperity and reduce the money available to pay for the transition off fossil fuels down the road.
One financial genius suggested diverting the P/L funding to renewables. Wasting taxpayer funds on wind and solar power generation in a province that gets 91 per cent of its electricity from hydro is ludicrous.
Instead of relying on activist mythology from sources like the Observer and Tyee, I urge people to use credible specialists for their pipeline information, such as A Chemist in Langley and oilandgasinfo.ca
R. Hailey
Duncan
