I was beginning to think that I would never see the day when the whining of the anti-pipeline lobby would begin to fall out of favour with the regular folks, as well as with the elites, but with Kinder Morgan's halt to its Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMP) Project this past week, it now appears that the Canadian Public has finally had enough. Thank Heavens.
I will not bore you with the background but as citizens wherever you may live, you are well aware of their predictions of doom and ability to, in many cases, paralyze growth especially in left leaning countries like our own Canada.
In fact, it has been over a decade since our last pipeline was constructed and today we see existing lines maxed out. Our Trains ...one of the worst possible ways to transport oil and gas, have been dragooned into use while our agricultural products, especially grain, remain in their bins. It is costing our Prairie Provinces in the Billions of Dollars.
As a result of the Trans Mountain stoppage, two of our Provinces are now in a vicious battle of wills...Alberta which wants to transport its oil and gas to the Pacific via British Columbia and B.C. which wants Alberta's oil and gas kept in the ground..forever. As of this writing the Province of Saskatchewan has joined the fray on the side of Alberta.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are so incensed that they are threatening to cut-off existing oil and gas shipments to BC needed by that Province for domestic use. If that were to happen, the latter's gas prices at the pumps double. A similar threat is being made to central Canada which too will result in steep increases at the pump and with respect to home heating costs.
But on the positive side, this feud has resulted in the Canadian Public finally coming to its senses on the need to find reliable ways (aka pipelines) to effectively get the major product of Western Canada to market. The lack of pipeline capacity has resulted in a 50% drop in investment in the oil sands and their oil being sold at a discount. The reason for this is that 99% of our oil and gas is exported to the United States and as that country moves closer to self-sufficiency they can and do depress greatly the price they are willing to a foreign country like ours.
And let's not pretend that this is the result of the current progressive Liberal Government we have in Ottawa since its predecessor, the pro-business Conservative Governments under Stephen Harper too was rendered helpless in the face of the vocal Enviros who were often funded by outsiders such as the Saudis and the Soros Open Society Foundations.
With Public Support turning, our Federal Government is finally getting the courage to get actively involved in seeing the Trans Mountain Route built to conclusion. In the face of this, British Columbia and the Enviros wrongly claim that the Feds do not have the constitutional power to force the TMP through... but of course it does...The British North America Act of 1867, Canada's Constitution, makes that abundantly clear.
Despite this, there are still many citizens out there who believe the dispute should be left at the Provincial Level but that would only ensure nothing would change and of course that would be the ideal outcome for them. One of those is a reader of mine ...Gerry. Here is what he recently wrote:
It feels like most Canadians would love to see BC and Alberta come up with their own solution to this environmental degradation that will occur to one province while another profits financially. We know from past experiences that if an accident can, then it will happen like the Exxon Valdez crashing or pipelines leaking and they will in the volatile Canadian Rockies. Can we as Canadians live with that? Can the people of B.C. or Alberta live with that? This is why the Federal Government should not get involved.If the Federal Government does involve itself in favour of cross-provincial energy transmission, it will be one of the first times ever. Its usual position is to stay neutral and to keep its head buried in the sand ...so to speak.
The worst example of this occurred in the late 1940s when Newfoundland tried to run hydro electric power from its Churchill Falls Generating Station to the United States. To do that, the power lines first had to cross Quebec. Quebec's reaction was to say we'd gladly help out but want to be compensated for doing so.
Compensated!!!
The contract runs until 2041 and by its terms Quebec pays Newfoundland $2 per Unit and resells it for $85 per Unit... a pretty good return in anybody's books.
Before signing this entirely one ended agreement, Newfoundland appealed to the Federal Government to intervene and force a decent, fair agreement. The Feds refused even though it was generally accepted that they had all the jurisdiction needed to do so.
To add insult to injury, the profits Quebec receives from its hydro electric sales are not even counted when determining how much Quebec is entitled to under the national financial redistribution program for have-not provinces.
And to add even more insult, Quebec has been receiving consistently $10 Billion Dollars per year under that program while the Province of Alberta has been paying out that exact same sum. To date Alberta's payments exceed $100 Billion.
So no wonder why readers such as Gerry think the Federal Government should stay neutral...this has always been their mode of operation.
And one last example involving Quebec and Ontario. This past year, the West tried to run a new pipeline through those two provinces to refineries in New Brunswick. It was called the Eastern Pipeline and the above two Provinces scuddled the initiative. How Quebec had the nerve to do so given the annual largess it receives from Alberta...but it did.
The purpose of this pipeline was two-fold, first, to sell Western Canadian oil to the folks in Eastern Canada and to replace the current oil and gas coming into Eastern Canada from Saudia Arabia.
And, guess what... Canada's Federal Government stayed mute.
Let's hope that this time, with the TMP, things will be different.
But as I often say, the Proof Is In The Pudding.
As I see it...
'K.D. Galagher'
