Nothing is foolproof as fools are so ingenious. But corporations out to make a profit from a public resource are disingenuous. With billions at stake they will lie, bribe, intimidate and make false promises in order to get their hands on our common property.
In this case that property is the thousand of rivers and streams, the vast wildlife of our region, and the very existence of wildlife in the seas to one day be fouled with oil spills.
Can any choreographed "hearings" and court challenges overcome the Harper regime's toadying to the will of the massive Enbridge and it's tar sands backers? Don't bet on it.

I'm SummerSoul and this is just SummerSoul's opinion.

How would we have been able to stop Alcan, How can we prevent the governments of the day from doing what they want. Were we able to stop the hst? The gst?

Make our financial system properly reflect the reality that it's supposed to be able to reflect, whatintheheck.
That's the only way any major project of the nature of an Alcan or Enbridge can be properly assessed.

Or whether taxes like the GST or HST are actually doing what their proponents endlessly tell us they're being imposed to do.

Or whether we're building a country that's FREE TO actually trade with other lands to a mutual advantage, or FORCED TO exchange our real resources for international debts we'll never be able to collect on, and end up having to try and make good ourselves.

Right now, the overall financial system we have clearly DOESN'T reflect reality. And so we have incomplete and flawed money 'figures' determining actual physical 'facts' as if those figures were of more importance than the facts themselves, and had a life of their own separate from them.

That's what WE need to change if we're ever to break this mindless cycle that's been so well described as a 'race to the bottom'.

The battle has just begun. It won't come quickly, or easily, or without our many further efforts such as the one just started via the anti-HST Petition. But if we stay the course it WILL come ~ especially as the alternatives become ever more understood in their effects on all of us.

Kudos to Mr. Meisner for seeing through Enbridge's hollow promises of economic salvation. For our kids' sake, we need to take a long view on this one and learn from past experiences. We have too much to lose.

Good work Ben! Keep it up. If you influence just one person by your article it is well worth the effort. We must as a people stick together and stop this kind of oppression and by that I mean accepting what we don't want.

The oil extracting companies in Alberta are mostly USA owned. Alberta has a border with the USA. Now those US owned companies want to send some oil to China and other Asian markets, via B.C. pipelines and super tankers on our coast!

I say let them pump it to the USA, then via pipelines to a USA port on the West Coast and take the risk of spills and tanker accidents themselves instead of offloading it on B.C. which, by the way, does not have a revenue sharing with the province of Alberta as far as the tar sands go.

Even Alberta does not make the big bucks from the exploitation of that tar sands resource. The big bucks are made by the NON-CANADIAN international oil super megas like EXXON and BP.

Alberta gets only some very low royalties (compared to what other countries are charging) and some taxes and some jobs.

Why should B.C. assume this huge risk when there isn't any real money in it and not very many permanent jobs???

Forget it! Tell them to stay away!

Ben, your opinion aligns with mine.

With the economic benefits that come from our rivers and oceans it doesn't make sense to risk this with an inevitable oil spill.

Better to say "No the pipeline and tankers" and build an economy our grandchildren will be thankful for.

The promise of jobs is what gets people buying in to projects like this.
The jobs will not be plentiful, nor long lasting but the adverse effects on 1,000
rivers and streams could be forever.

Thanks for bringing attention to this issue Ben.

Thank you Ben, for this and your item of June 24 "Before Enbridge...". Nothing mixes quite like Supertankers and human error, except oil and water(?)

Thanks Ben. If we can't even protect "our own backyard" then we're in big trouble, aren't we? It is our right, and our responsibility. Any oil spill is too big for the Skeena watershed. It's nice to see all these comments. A breath of fresh air. Nice to know that people aren't willing to take all jobs at any cost. I stand behind my brothers and sisters in solidarity to stop this crazy proposal. Blood will be spilt.

Well here we are, we are bing told to live greener. We have a carbon tax and we cant have a wiener roast in our own back yard

On the other hand we have a Hugh corporation at the Tar Sand spewing out millions of tons of pollutant into the atmosphere as Prince George has indicated to make a profit that will leave our country too export a product that other nations may carry on our uncaring attitude to our environment.
Cheers

" Posted by: whatintheheck on July 12 2010 7:03 AM
How would we have been able to stop Alcan, How can we prevent the governments of the day from doing what they want. Were we able to stop the hst? The gst?"

The only way to stop our gov't from doing what they want, will be for the people of this country to stop being so civilized!

This project is flawed from the get go. I have no doubt that CSIS is watching the goings on around the promotion of this project... for potential of politicians willing to take money to sell out their country.

Yes China wants access to the oil resources of the tar sands. This is evident by their own supply problems, their economic growth requirements, and their investments in the Canadian tar sand.

Yes the politicians and the bureaucracy think in terms of government revenue to fund their agenda and often outrageous salaries. They have a shared interest in working with the Chinese regardless of the long term costs to a region that is seen as distant far off bush that is free to them in its abundance for exploitation anyways. Any future catastrophe would likely be long after they have exited the scene, and far away in the 'bush'.

No, the risk to the North is not worth the small bit if shinny beads in short term construction jobs (that will mostly go to outsiders anyways), and a token amount of royalty revenue that would never cover the costs of the impacts (even clean up) this ticking time bomb could have to the rest of our economy, its environment, and all the intangibles that can't be easily quantified. What if we had a massive earth quack like the one in Alaska in the 60's?

The question with a project like this is whether or not we have a democracy that works for the country, or a party system that makes government work for them?

IMHO...

$20 billion performance bond requirement would maybe help stop the project.

How would Lloyds of London assess the risk of both the pipeline and the oil tanker shipments?

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/61385584

Oil companies are self-insuring, the same as governments. Even at that, insurance rates will be going up considerably based on the above interview.

What ignorance. There are already pipelines crossing 1000's of streams in this province. You act like like this is the first one! This is proven technology. Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean its bad - you need to educate yourself!!! I shouldn't be surprised though - people in PG don't know a damn thing about oil and gas - they dont even understand its what keeps them them warm and moves them around! They don't understand that this pipeline is needed in order to keep a market for BC gas. They don't understand that gas is the only thing keeping this province going. They dpn't understand there are already 1000's of kms of pipeline crossing 1000's of streams already. They dont understand pipelines already run through PG and it hasn't spelled the end of the world. All they understand is wood, and wood is dead as the pine forests. You'll all soon be living in your logging trucks because you won't have nor deserve the right to use liquid fuel. Bloody cavemen!

Gamblor, educate yourself.


This pipeline has nothing to do with B.C. gas. This is to take crude oil from the tarsands, to Kitimat to be loaded on oil tankers and taken to China.

It doesn't matter how proven any technology, there's always the possibility of human error.

Gambler pipelines in BC serve the BC market... this ones takes all the risks and environmental consequences to serve a foreign market... huge difference there.

Alberta has the existing pipelinea in place to carry BC gas to market, so not sure what you arguement is... huge differance between BC and Alberta in geological risk terms especially with land slides and earthquacks.

Especially "earthquacks", Eagle! But on this one we should be on their side, in my opinion. The risk is not worth the reward.