By Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart
Kinder Morgan has called a halt to all non-essential spending on the Trans Mountain pipeline, despite having operated the existing pipeline safely for 60 years and having dutifully advanced through every step of the regulatory process to obtain approval to proceed.
Kinder Morgan has made this decision based on the comments and actions of our current provincial government.
There is no question that this pipeline is the safest method for moving needed product to port. There is no question that it is in the national and provincial best interests. It is also in the best interests of the Fraser-Nicola region.
While the issue of the pipeline is important here, what is even more important is the simple question “Is our province open for business”. It doesn’t take very much to shift the mood in the business community. The message being sent here is that if the government is philosophically opposed to what you are doing, regardless of your attention to the regulatory process, we will do everything we can to make it difficult for you to do business in B.C.
Working to deliberately kill or delay this pipeline—a pipeline that has already been approved—is bad for the province and bad for the Fraser-Nicola region. It is bad for the businesses in this region that will lose work, it is bad for the citizens who will not get those jobs, and it is bad for the First Nations that have agreed to partner with Kinder Morgan.
More importantly, this decision is bad because of the message it sends to others thinking of doing business in the Fraser-Nicola region and, indeed, all of British Columbia.
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