Meisner's Q and A with Terasen/Kinder Morgan

Tuesday, August 30, 2005 09:02 PM

Opinion 250's Ben Meisner looks on as Terasen Gas V.P. of Marketting and Business Development Doug Stout (left) and Media Relations Manager, Dean Pelkey (right) try to make their point.

A handful of people turned out for the Terasen Gas/Kinder Morgan Open House at the Coast Inn of the North Tuesday night.

Spokesman for Terasen Gas, Dean Pelkey, says the sale of Terasen Gas to American based Kinder Morgan will mean that Canada's pension plan will get a boost of money . He says because of the sale, pension funds that had invested money in the corporation will reap good benefits from the sale.

Here are several other questions posed to Pelkey and others :

Question:   Are Canadians paying more for their natural gas than residents of the USA?
Answer:     There are States in the US that pay more for natural gas than Canadians.

Q: Are there States that pay less ?
A:   I don’t know, but Ontario pays more for gas than we do in BC .

Q:How are the prices determined?
A: Natural gas is a de-regulated commodity, the price is built on supply and demand .

Q: The price of gas is regulated by the BCUC , do they take into account what is being charged for the un-regulated commodity elsewhere ?
A: Yes they do , but they determine what price we can charge for deleivery .

Q: What is the benefit for the people of BC to sell Terasen to US based Kinder Morgan?
A: This will allow Terasen to make funds available for infrastructure for those who are drilling for the product in Northern BC .

Q: But wait ! Aren’t we producing more gas than there is a demand for in this province?
A:  Demand is going up by 2% while production is increasing by 5 to 10%.

Q: Are we not providing funds to enable these companies to export more gas into the USA ?
A: Kinder Morgan does not have a natural gas pipeline running into the States .

Q: So where will this gas go if BC residents don’t need it?
A: Well at present only 10% of the natural gas that we produce is used in BC the balance is exported.

Q: Are there any major players such as former board member Ron Cliff of the old Inland Gas who stand to make a huge profit on their shares under this sale?
A: I don’t know how many shares Mr. Cliff has, if any.

Q:Can Kinder Morgan gaurantee there will be no job cuts in the Terasen work force if they are granted authority to purchase the company?
A:We are saying that there will be no changes at Terasen Gas for Terasen customers.

Q:Does that mean no change in employees?
A: Well we can’t say whether there will be changes in the company whether Kinder Moragn takes over or it stays the same .

Q: What is the biggest reason for the people of BC to support the sale of Terasen Gas?
A: It is good for the economy.

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Posted on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 09:02 PM in News by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: spanky on August 30 2005 9:45 PM

Sounds like a great deal. Just believe evrything ol DEANO has to say. I bet his mouth only speaketh the truth.Good for the economy? Drill for more gas in Northern B.C.? Sounds like he is selling us a "pipe" dream quite literally. Oh well it is too late anyways?

later........

Posted by: ammonra on August 30 2005 10:31 PM

It's interesting how many of the questions were not actually answered. If you don't like the question asked, answer a different one. An old trick, designed to obscure the real agenda.

Posted by: owl on August 31 2005 12:32 AM

Bang on ammonra ....!!!!

So where is the question after the first couple of questions which would go something like:

"So far you have given me one province in Canada which pays more than BC, and you have not given me any which pay less.

On the assumption that a company which knows what it is doing should know the market prices of the goods they are selling in their market areas, or potential market areas, your response, or lack thereof, tells me that I can infer that the others all pay less than BC.

So tell me, why do we pay more than all other provinces in Canada than Ontario when the gas originates in BC?

Posted by: acrider54 on August 31 2005 6:19 AM

Yeah right! This province has basically sold out to the States and expect your natural gas rates to rise sharply in the next little while.

Posted by: gypsy on August 31 2005 10:33 AM

At least they will have gotten the message "loud and clear."
The residents in this city will be only too happy to pay, and pay, and pay.
They voice no objections.
They are too busy to be concerned.
They may feel a bit of pain when hydro goes up, and the electric heaters eat up a few more bucks.
What to do next????
We are not accustomed to living in igloos, and we will find no pleasure in living in the north if we cannot stay warm during the winter months.
Our standard of living is surely going to decline.
Ask for higher wages-and increase other costs.
We seem to be on some kind of vicious cycle.
How is all this going to pan out????
We will enter a "survival of the fittest" mode.
People will end up feeling desperate.
How will it all end????

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on September 1 2005 7:42 AM

I'm curious. How can you ignore the nature of the people that want BC Gas? There is the example in New Orleans at the lowest level of crimnals taking over the city as soon as there is weakness, the NAFTA says the US is acting illegally at the highest level, so how can you assume that if we don't sell BCGas that they won't just come and take it? What could we do about it? Send out Murray Krause to explain things to them USA dudes? Better think about the situation some more.