If Harper Hopes To Get A BC Pipeline, Bring The Check Book
Monday, September 16, 2013 @ 3:45 AM
It is expected that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will rally his troops in an effort to get the idea of a pipeline going from Alberta to the west coast around either Kitimat or Prince Rupert.
The word on the street is that some heavy weights from the Conservatives will be visiting around trying to drum up support not necessarily Enbridge but never the less a pipeline, in some fashion, to the west coast .
If the Prime Minister wants to get the, on the ground feeling of the various communities, he will be surprised at the resolve. He will discover it simply isn’t just several First Nations’ bands who are responsible for the opposition, but rather a large group of the rank and file in not only the central and western regions of the province, but the lower mainland as well.
Some might argue that the pitch by Enbridge was doomed from the beginning. I don’t buy into that notion, it was simply the people of the province looking at what was in it for them and then looking at the risks, and saying we are not buying in. The Feds may be able to attract more of the First Nations to the table with some monetary offers. But when that is over, the rank and file voter of the province will step forward regardless of what the Feds accomplish in trying to win over the population.
The project is good for Alberta, good for the Feds, and an obvious risk for those people that care about BC in the long term.
If Harper is hoping to bridge that gap, he will need to come to the table with some very solid guarantees that any spills will not eventually cost the people of this province, or the environment. He will also need to bring his cheque book with him. If this province is to assume the risk, then it is this province that should reap the benefits.
In the last go round, that was sadly lacking.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
What is good for Canada is good for BC. With that kind of mentality the railroads would not have been built, and BC would be a US state.
Quaint notion. How’s your collection of buggy whips coming along?
Times have changed and there’s a hell of a difference between a railroad and a bitumen pipeline, especially when things go wrong.
The pipeline is good for Canadians how alexvega? Is it going to lower their tax rate? No. Is it going to lower the price of fuel? No.
They are still cleaning up the Kalamazoo spill!
Your ‘rank & file’ in the Central and North of BC are dependent on resource industries and the long term spin offs from construction. And what do voters have to do with it? This is a straight economic deal, good for BC big time, and a tremendous opportunity to get first nations members out of poverty. The chiefs are of course afraid they will lose control, but they will fatten their personal bank accounts out of your and Enbridge’s bank account.
Your ‘rank & file’ in the lower mainland treat the North like dirt and you pay credence to what they think? Man up and support the Enbridge project instead of hiding behind
The biggest drawback to any major project of this type is the pure inflation it will cause here in BC.
The danger from oil spills is grossly over-rated in comparison.
There is no denying that there would be an increase in economic activity if a pipeline, or pipelines, were built.
But surely we should have learned something from past experiences with mega-projects of this type when it comes to their overall effect on consumer product prices here in BC? Or are we determined to repeat the same errors we made in the past, where we believed price rises were a sign of impending prosperity when all we were really doing was digging a deeper and deeper debt hole for ourselves?
Personally, I’ve nothing against the idea of having a pipeline, or of the all the economic activity it’ll generate. I think it can be built to operate safely, and the risk it will spill it’s product and do any catastrophic and irreparable harm is miniscule.
But can’t we address the REAL issue here for once, and find a sensible way to mitigate the increase in prices that are guaranteed to accompany its construction, and will haunt us long after its built and the ‘jobs’ have vanished?
Unfortunately you just have to look to our city hall to see what happens when those who make the rules want something bad enough, the general public can go hang because those who make the decisions ‘know best’ and the rest of us are just peeons
Guess you missed the memo NoWay:
Here is a comparison between the rail and pipeline spill
Kalamazoo 877,000 US gallons or 3,320,000 liters of oil spilled
Lac Megantic 1,505,780 US gallons or 5,700,000 liters of oil spilled
MMA went broke and has to declare bankruptcy and/or apply for bankruptcy protection over the first 8 million dollars and city/province is doing/paying for the cleaning now, Enbridge is still cleaning having spent over 800 million to date and not bankrupt
There are many types of crude oil, the railway has no idea of what type of oil they are transporting. Turns out officials believe through testing that the oil the train at Lac Megantic had in its cars was the very same blend turned down by Enbridge to transport in its pipelines as ‘too dangerous’
Check book or Cheque book?
this project will be built,one way or another. if Wayne Gretzky could be traded out of alberta because he was a depreciating asset this is how Harper will maximize the oil value also leaving alberta…Just having some mental fun!
Funny, I was just talking to a contractor out west that is already working on the “secret not so secret” pipeline. wink nudge.
Anyone who thinks this is not going through is seriously deluding themselves.
Once Pacific Trails Pipeline has its route built wouldn’t it be easy to just add a few more pipes underground? This is the LNG pipeline heading to Rupert and Kitimat which is being laid out on the ground right as we speak with the survey work and logging, pipes to go in soon if not already happening.
This is also the port that is being built in the Kitimat Arm as we all type away
http://www.kitimatlngfacility.com
http://www.pacifictrailpipelines.com/
Socredible, I struggle with your inflation scenario. Yes it will drive wages higher as they compete for labor and resources. But is that bad? Would high unemployment below world commodity prices be preferable?
“If the Prime Minister wants to get the, on the ground feeling of the various communities, he will be surprised at the resolve”
Okay, after having lived in Ottawa for 2.5 years now, I can tell you exactly what type of press this has received here:
– First off, the pipeline received NO PRESS WHATSOEVER until people in BC started to come out against it.
– Secondly, the people who came out against it were basically branded by the conservatives as “left wing ecoterrorists”.
Can you send me $250K in consulting fees now? Thanks.
i think the opposite, interceptor, anyone that believes this will go through is deluding themselves. i think you’re right that it will eventually be given the green light, but this thing will be tied up in legalities and land claims for at least a decade. since BC will see almost no benefit after construction is completed with only a few dozen permanent jobs, all the risk related to a pipeline, built by a company with a seriously depressing environmental record, i’m opposed to the project anyways so have no problem with this thing languishing in the courts. i’ll have a self-driving electric car that gets 1000kms on a charge before the northern gateway is built.
“i’ll have a self-driving electric car that gets 1000kms on a charge before the northern gateway is built”
I would actually agree that this is a very likely possibility!
If they want it to the west coast so badly, why don’t they go down underground about a mile and tunnel their way through? Make a tunnel big enough for future expansion while they’re at it. That’s the only way I would support it.
NMG: “Secondly, the people who came out against it were basically branded by the conservatives as “left wing ecoterrorists”
What are people who are against the pipeline calling people who are for it? The street goes both ways, NMG.
Give: “If they want it to the west coast so badly, why don’t they go down underground about a mile and tunnel their way through? Make a tunnel big enough for future expansion while they’re at it. That’s the only way I would support it.”
This statement just goes to show how little people know about pipelines in this region. If it’s not forestry, people generally have no clue, nor do they care to educate themselves.
In any case, the pipeline is needed, no question about it. We are a resource economy and that won’t change anytime soon. If someone can’t come up with a good reason why it won’t be built (other than chicken little scenarios), then it will go ahead. Time will tell.
Good reason not to be built it is a bad deal for BC.
Muppets news flash slinky! Train was carrying light crude, pipeline was carrying tars sands bitumen. Two different animals. Look at the work they have to do to decontaminate the rail crash site. It’s worse for tars sands bitumen.
It sounds like you think I want them to rail it to the coast! Nope, keep it out if BC period. There is enough of it going to the coast now in the Kindermorgan pipeline. If they have an accident on that pipe like they did in Burnaby a few years back they will need more body bags than they used in Quebec!
Go away Enbridge!
Comments for this article are closed.