Trans Mountain Pipeline would only benefit Alberta
Although I am already 90 years old, I am very much concerned about the controversy regarding the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
The federal government, led by Justin Trudeau, is making a huge error in forcing and supporting the construction of the unwanted Trans Mountain pipeline through B.C., our home province, pristine land, rivers and coastal waters.
This project intends to ship huge amounts of bitumen from Alberta to new port facilities in the Vancouver area. Bitumen (common tar used for paving roads) is heavier than water, and in case of leakage or accidents, sinks to the bottom of rivers and coastal waters. It cannot be skimmed off the surface but “paves” the bottom of rivers and the ocean. Forever!
Alberta, already the richest province of Canada, with the highest wages in the land — so rich, that they gladly forgo raising a provincial sales tax — want to still get richer by selling huge amounts of petroleum product to the Asian market, “for the good of the country”. Only Alberta, Alberta, and Alberta again, together with the federal government, rake in the essential portions of a lasting financial benefit from this project. The B.C. province, with the exception of a few work places, will get the Albertan and federal fingers and the risk of pollution and of more freighters crowding and parking in our waters.
What is also upsetting is the fact that the federal climate policy and its energy policy are completely contradictory. Canada has been caught lying during and on the Paris environmental convention. So have the U.S. been caught. Even U.S. president, Donald Trump, thought it better to cancel U.S. membership on this international convention. And Canada thinks that lying is acceptable in the days of Donald Trump. Canada should cancel one or the other. Alberta does not need the help of the federal government to become richer and become the Saudis of Canada. The Saudis have enough oil revenue, that everybody in Saudi Arabia could quit working for a living. Alberta, even on their present rate of oil production without the new pipeline, are still better off than any other province in Canada.
At this point, I recall an event two years ago or so, when B.C. was still governed by a Liberal government: the U.S. coal industry sought permission to build a large shipping facilitiy and a dock in the Vancouver area, after they had been rejected by every U.S. city on the Pacific coast. The Liberal B.C. government denied permission. If Donald Trump had he been in power then, he would have forced Seattle to accept such a big port facility “for the good of the country”. I am grateful, and possibly a last time in my life, to a Liberal goverment in B.C., thanks to Justin Trudeau.
Kurt Herzog
Cowichan Bay
