So the story goes like this, should the pipeline go through (it will it’s just a matter of time) and Christy gets tossed out of office by an election (will more than likely happen) she will be assured a nice cushy job at Enbridge (some time down the road) or one of it’s divisional companies.

Replacing the Massey Tunnel? Yeah like that’s going to happen in the next ten years. Pre Election fluff.

Special projects fund??? Whoa where did that come from, truly not fiscal restraint. Wait for it……… Down the road we will be advised that the money came from a fund for something much more important….say healthcare or education or ministerial severance package funds….

Humm Time will tell.

Cristy Clark never had a firm thought about BC or the pipelines ever. I can’t wait for the change in government. Because who ever the government is will care about what happens in BC more than the Lieberals do.

Don’t bet on it!

The Liberals or the NDP can do all the sabre rattling they want, but it doesn’t matter. The pipeline is Federal.

Cant beleive all this hyperbole is for an election next May. I still wondering if they are going to call a **snap** election.

Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and not to mention the Green Party, they are all self serving. Check it out, soon as any one of them get into power, it’s slag the party leaving and then spend like it’s going out of style and blame the “other guys”. In that respect politicians are no better than used car salesmen, they have no idea what they are selling but they will pawn it off on you any way they can (no actual disrespect intended to used car sales people, your all good folks).

Despite Johnnybelt`s blathering, Harper will fall before any pipeline goes to kitimat.

The province can make requirements so stringent and costly, that even if Harper pushes the cost would quadtriple..$30 billion…

All Enbridge is doing now is flailing away, the argument lost, game over.

Sorry Johnybelt, you lose!

_______________

577,The Unluckiest Number,Ten years out./ The Enbridge pipeline disaster.

The 10 year anniversary next month of the Bengal Lion Star tragedy and I had to come to ground zero to see for myself, perhaps it was a mistake to come here, from what I have seen i`m way too angry to cry and too sad for fury, in fact I almost have that peaceful easy feeling.

How I miss my dad`s analytical explanation and mom`s hope springs eternal talks, yet I fear that neither parent could explain away this tragedy, 10 years later, 10 years of black death extending it`s reach.

Looking around by boat off Banks island, one mile from ground zero the feeling is of the surreal, trees are still green but any ocean life or bird activity is eerily quiet, no salmon fry swimming , no squawking gulls just silence, for tens of miles in every direction the great kelp forests are gone, who gave us permission to gamble and lose what we didn`t own and what we could never replace, little Fish lake was a horrid environmental mistake, imagine deliberately destroying a huge natural watershed for trinkets of gold, thousands of dead migrating birds, a poisonous lake devoid of life, how many species of frogs, insects still get near or in the lake only to perish or leave half dead, but as horrible as the deliberate execution of little Fish lake was, the scale of the Bengal Lion Star oil spill off Banks island in Hecate Strait is beyond compare, how is it that my only terms of reference in attempting to describe this site is that of dead zones, in a way its very peaceful, no eternal battle for life here, those days are long gone.

Only if I could turn back the clock, why did it happen, the Bengal Lion Star should not have went out, a deep pacific low moving in, was the Captain pressured to leave, why why why, even with two large commercial tug boats assisting wasn`t going to stop the wreck, maybe if there were extra support tugs who knows but when lead tug boat Kitimat queen capsized in heavy seas nothing was going to stop the massive oil carrier from grounding on White jagged rocks that stormy (March 14, 2016) night, 30 to 40 foot high waves capped with fury pounded the Bengal Lion Star on unforgiving rocks, section after section burst like watermelons, spewing millions of gallons of tar sand oil, the 3rd largest oil spill in the world, maybe if the oil containment teams had gotten out here sooner but with storm force winds blowing for 2 days along with extreme high and low tides, my god, oil sprayed the shore line high on exposed rocks and layered thick into the lowest tidal zones, mountains of Alberta biyumen flowing in deep water, who could imagine the oil and heavy sheen would have spread 50 miles in different directions over 2 days, coves, bays, narrow channels coated in black death, as far as I can look in any direction this paradise is dead, who knows what the bird count will ultimately be, millions of direct bird deaths with millions more that died in subsequent migrations, birds all along the coast found dead, birds with clear signs of contact with heavy oil, the natural engine in this migration route blasted with Alberta crude, indeed, the scale of the Bengal Lion Star oil spill can`t be measured in millions of oiled birds or the 40 distinct salmon runs that were decimated and or all of British Columbia`s wild salmon teetering on extinction, the sea lions, otters, coastal bears, eagles, ferrets, no salmon spawning led one extinction into another, we broke nature`s bond, too many dead for one`s heart to count, oil stained carcasses feed other animals that ultimately die too, black oil`s death-grip reaches on and on, only with time, generational time, perhaps millenia before this area recovers, can it recover, and for what, to spill another tanker of crude.

I don`t what is harder to take, the fragile existence of a few northern runs of salmon and southern Sockeye, it`s almost like the cycle of life has been thrown out, this large swath of nature, thousands of square miles destroyed forever, well at least for my lifetime, perhaps 6 or 7 generations before this area will become fertile again but with continued oil tanker traffic when will black death strike again, even if the shell fish recover, even if herring spawns again, the Orca will never be seen again, the birthing females were first to die then the small adolescent Orca perished, 2 adult males are all that is left of the species, maybe mankind should have figured out how to start a new Orca pod before destroying the only one we had, unique species and west coast wildlife gone, in a blink, for all time, gone, why didn`t we learn from the Valdez disaster, there is no going back, First Nations have mourned, the northern and island tourism industry has been decimated, maybe I should have fought harder against the National review 15 years ago, 10 years out from the disaster and Hecate Strait still lay mortally wounded, you can still smell crude oil, I can only think of Charlton Heston`s Planet of the Apes movie when he sees New York`s Statue of Liberty and realizes that it was mankind itself that burned mother nature, this area is no longer worth fighting for, top scientists are mostly in agreement that outside of decades of time there is nothing on scale that can be done to remediate the damage.

It appears the only ones left fighting about the Bengal Lion Star are the litigants, where have we seen this picture before, the Exxon Valdez law suit still lingers unpaid(40 years later), the Liberian registered Bengal Lion Star oil tanker had but minimum insurance, $200 million dollars yet the insurance has been contested, Bengal Lion Star hadn`t paid premiums in 2 years, Honshu commercial carrier insurance company have claimed bankruptcy, between the Province and Ottawa more than $14.9 billion has been spent on clean-up and species mitigation, First Nations, affected business`s and local town`s folk have law suits filed worth more than $15 billion dollars, everyone suing and litigating for compensation on something no one can return, Enbridge pipeline inc washes their hands of any responsibility, Shell, Exxon Mobile and the Chinese petroleum company are all pointing fingers at each other, owners of the Bengal Lion Star blame the escort tug company, tug company blames act of god and file for bankruptcy, how long will these trials go on and who will ultimately pay, what price, what price to return nature to the way it was, all this pain to secure dirty Alberta crude oil to China, oil use falls for the last 7 years, a dying product needing desperate tyrants, we sold out nature on British Columbia`s wild west coast for a handful of pesos, how can ancient dregs of plants take so much away from present and future life cycles, I can`t shed tears anymore, my life, my personal battles, millions of wasted words warning of potential harm or should I say risk management, I `m too old to repeat the warnings and too tired to muster passion, the battle for Haida Gwaii is over.

Even the First Nation`s blockade attempting to stop the very first oil tanker, 8 First Nations elders gave their life that day, not near enough pressure to stop that massive Vessel, Oil tanker Shell diamond and its Canadian naval escort, dugout canoe versus high-speed frigate, symbolic but futile, the time to stop Enbridge was before it started, certainly native voices on opening day weren`t going to stop it, you can`t stop $5 billion dollars spent, never-the-less, January 13/2016 was the day the first super tanker left Kitimat, thousands of small protest vessels, nothing, not even Greenpeace and Suzuki foundation`s concentrated efforts could stop the Federal Conservatives and the Gordon Campbell Christy Clark B.C. Liberal administration from rubber stamping this project from the git-go, proceeding at full speed behind closed doors, no matter how much evidence anti pipeline opponents, scientists, biologists and enviro`s put forward they were all but ignored, why didn`t the NDP government stop the completion of Enbridge after they were elected in 2013, was the fix in, too much money invested to stop, too big to fail, needed economic growth, jobs jobs jobs, yes I heard everyone of those excuses justifying the completion of Enbridge, what jobs, imported foreign workers building the pipeline and 120 permanent after construction jobs, was it worth it.

Madness, I knew something really big would happen, not the 5000 barrels that spilt into the Skeena river, not the 50,000 barrels dumped at the port of Kitimat but something epic, mathematicians also knew it was coming, not if a big spill would happen but when a spill would happen, I can still hear Christy Clark talk about risk management, the best corporate spinners hired to say we can manage the risk, how come no one asked how do we manage armageddon, how do we clean up, how do we create more Orca, how do you bring back thousands of square miles from the dead, I wonder what Gordon Campbell would say today, ex premier Adrian Dix stated regrets that the NDP didn`t do more to stop Enbridge, Gordon Campbell is long since dead, yes Stephen Harper and Gordon Muir Campbell I pass blame on to you and your complicit Cabinets, your legacy, Enbridge, bankrupt utilities, a dismal health care system, a dead central coast and slow dying life cycle, well, no one is listening to me, not the Governing federal Conservatives, not Premier Gordon Coons of the newly elected Refederation party, no, no one wants to listen to the left wing, after the BC Liberal led economic collapse, the seeds of P3s, IPPs and insider deals dominated, it didn`t matter who was Government in British Columbia, so many bad deals were signed, how many can the court overturn, the extent of the economic damage that came to fruition, what happened, like the Spanish flu in 1919 that killed millions, no one talks about the harm Gordon Campbell`s corporate Government inflicted upon us, the extent of one way contracts that ate up every Provincial dollar and more, I can`t help but think back to our 2010 Olympics, the pride, the I am Canadian attitude, Super Natural British Columbia but just a few short years after the closing ceremonies we have poisoned interior lakes, lost countless wild salmon runs to fish farms and now the third largest oil spill in the world, a death blow to our BC Coast, a massive spill in our migration engine.

Just picture heaven covered in oil, and what hurts even more, the people of BC don`t seem to care anymore, in the latest public opinion poll by Ipsos Reid job creation and big industry are more important than the environment, 67% for jobs and 16% say protect the environment, it`s times like this when I stare across at Mc Caully island or look into Norway inlet, smell the oil, I see the end of the world being played out, there is no shoulder of comfort to lean on, no soothing hugs that can squelch my silent anger, 576 successful departures from Kitimat, 576 loaded oil tankers that safely managed the inside passage, risk management, reward versus risk, despite 5 years of cruise ships not plying the inside passage, despite the loss to tourism, despite a sterile ocean desert, despite the tiniest of recoveries on the outer edges of the spill zone, despite of everything tanker traffic is predicted to triple over the next 3 years, an insatiable Asian appetite for oil and now that paradise is lost there is nothing left to fight for and no reason to stop, perhaps other Edens can be spared.

Number 577, no tears of anger, no screams of silence, nothing but…

“That peaceful easy feeling.”

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2010/04/577the-unluckiest-numberten-years-out.html

say what you guys want. If Busty Clark is bs-ing us, she has me fooled. I’m voting for her next election!

That’s quite a piece! Well written and hopefully not prophetic but entirely possible.

It’s easy, just say NO. Christy Clarke is just trying to play both sides of the fence. The BC Liberals would approve ANY industrial development regardless of any harm it may cause to the environment.

I’m sorry I don’t have time to type a million word essay on what is right or what is wrong with BC politics. You can say what you want about Christie Clark but what makes me mad is that in BC you are damned if you do and you are damned if you don’t. I like her stance on it. If it’s good and the rewards match the risk, then we go for it. It’s like any other business decision. For her to go to their barn and talk about what’s right for us is a huge deal. I wish more people would give her a little credit for it.
What the hell do you think the NDP are going to do? This province will be a have not province again. No oil and gas, no coal, no lumber. Just unions and unsustainable pensions. Just 50% of the population working to pay for the other 50%. We are in for a world of hurt if the NDP get in. Adrian Dix (momma named him right) has a pretty shady past for a guy we want to run our province. He spends all his time spouting off about what the liberals say yet has nothing to add about what he wants to do.
The people of BC better pull their heads out of their collective a$$e$ and stop “punish voting”. I get it. Your mad at the government. They didn’t do everything that you wanted them to do. So put the other guy in to punish them and watch the province go for a turd.

“It’s easy, just say NO. Christy Clarke is just trying to play both sides of the fence. The BC Liberals would approve ANY industrial development regardless of any harm it may cause to the environment.”

Sorry budy but I don’t agree. The public has changed and we have all decided that the environment is important to us all. Any government or corporation for that matter is dead in the water if they approve anything regardless of the harm.

Just a scary thought:
What if the Federal Gov’t just expropriates the land for the pipeline ? Could that be possible ?

“What if the Federal Gov’t just expropriates the land for the pipeline ? Could that be possible ?”

Not only possible, but it’s happened throughout history for pipelines, highways, rail lines, etc. It’s nothing new.

Thank’s JB. I didn’t even think of the obvious. I was having a Nanoose Bay flashback.

I suspect that building a pipeline requires some fairly big equipment and/or components that would require oversize permits to move. Aren’t the highways up near the proposed pipeline area Provincial?

Expropriating the land would actually be simple. Leveraging the full power of the Provincially controlled bureaucracy is what could kill this thing if the Province actually wanted to. I suspect the swath of land is actually pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

Of course, I’m not a constitutional lawyer and I’m sure the Province and Feds have different opinions on what they can do with their powers. The beauty of our democracy is that they would get the chance to have those grand debates in a venue like the Supreme Court of Canada. I’m sure the various issues (Provincial vs Federal powers, First Nations interests, inter-provincial relationships, etc.) would only take a decade or two to resolve.

I think the most amazing thing on this page is Give Mores post – who would have thought someone would be seeing criminalminds “577” story for the first time – he’s only posted on here about 150 times…. zzzz

PG Guy–did you forget the carbon tax already? Or the HST? We already have 50% working to support 40% and the other 10% live off generous tax credits and over charging you for goods and services.

You also forget Fish Lake…CC and her bad boys wanted it approved regardless of the damage…….really is there a need to go on? Their record is pretty clear, we know what they will do if given another term in office.

With the other parties and independant candidates we lack that knowledge. You can speculate, but at the end of the day you really don’t know until the rubber hits the road.

This won’t be the first proposed pipeline that wasn’t built, and probably not the last either. Refine the stuff in Canada, create jobs and investment here! It’s been proposed that they could refine it in Kitimat and if that’s the case they can do it in Alta and don’t need BC.

“The public has changed and we have all decided that the environment is important to us all” .. except JB of course.

But, I’m sorry that you are unable to deal with alternative viewpoints. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

So if you refine it in AN, how does it get to market? Many pipelines adding to the million miles already built.

The feds can try it JohnnyB but they would be in for a fight.

“During the disputes over what led to the Columbia River Treaty, BC Premier WAC Bennett threatened to take BC out of Canada – and to take Yukon as well – if Ottawa and Washington would not accede to his demands.”

CC:”there is no price that we can put on our environment. There is no amount of money that make up for an unacceptable risk when it comes too our oceans, our coast and our land.” and then “ I want them to know that if BC’s conditions are not addressed and met, the Enbridge pipeline will not be built, period.”

Forgive me for being a little confused but it seems to me someone is straddling the fence. So let me see If I get this,the cost of the environment has no price but if you give us enough then it is OK?

CC:”there is no price that we can put on our environment. There is no amount of money that make up for an unacceptable risk when it comes too our oceans, our coast and our land.” and then “ I want them to know that if BC’s conditions are not addressed and met, the Enbridge pipeline will not be built, period.”

Forgive me for being a little confused but it seems to me someone is straddling the fence. So let me see If I get this,the cost of the environment has no price but if you give us enough then it is OK?

BC is part of Canada and will always be. Because a foreign market wants to refine our oil is no reason for Canada to concede. We would never block the market from recieving our oil. That would not make any sence. Canadians however will not sacrifice our ecology for wealth, because the true wealth is our ecology.

“During the disputes over what led to the Columbia River Treaty, BC Premier WAC Bennett threatened to take BC out of Canada – and to take Yukon as well – if Ottawa and Washington would not accede to his demands.”

There’s a reason they called him Wacky Bennett.