The famous German poet and anti-
Fascist activist Bertolt Brecht once wrote,
“Bank robbery is an initiative of amateurs.
True professionals establish a bank.” In
the case of Kinder Morgan, they found
that a pipeline company would do the trick
just as well. The Texas oil giant looks set
to walk away from its controversial Trans
Mountain Pipeline Expansion project
with all their expenses so far covered...by
taxpayers. On top of that, we are also being
forced to give them a cool extra few billion
dollars in this $4.5 billion deal where they
unload their ageing, leaking pipeline to the
government of Canada.
Privatize the Profits, Socialize the Loses
Less than three weeks after Kinder Morgan
announced it was suspending all “nonessential”
spending on the project due to
continual delays from the opposition, the
government of Canada announced it would
take it over. “The project became too risky
for a commercial entity to go forward with
it; that’s what Kinder Morgan told us,”
Prime Minister Trudeau said during an
interview with Bloomberg news after the
announcement.
So, it’s too risky for the billionaire oil
executives who committed to the project
in the first place, but somehow acceptable
for taxpayers to be forced to assume the risk
and loses they never agreed to?
We also need to be clear; it’s not just $4.5
billion. Finance Minister Bill Morneau
refused to provide more specifics on the
deal and the costs for the project going
forward, but well-known economist and
specialist on the Trans Mountain pipeline
Robyn Allan provided her own assessment:
“By the time the expansion is built, the price
tag for nationalizing the existing assets and
building the expansion will cost Canadians
upwards of $15 - $20 billion.
That’s because the $7.4 billion capital cost
for the project estimated in February 2017
will likely exceed $9 billion by the time an
up to date budget is prepared. Then there is
$2.1 billion in financial assurances required
for the land-based spill risk and $1.5 billion
Oceans Protection Plan for marine spill
risk that Ottawa has already agreed to.”
Morneau also conveniently failed to
mention that two Kinder Morgan Canada
Executives, Ian Anderson and David Safari,
will earn $1.5 million each in bonuses from
the sale.
What Could it Have Been Spent On?
Cindy Blackstock spent over a decade
winning a case against the government of
Canada at the Canadian Human Right
Tribunal. The 2016 ruling found that
the government discriminated against
Indigenous children on reserves in its
chronic underfunding of their child welfare
services compared to other children.
She wrote this on Twitter following the
announcement, “Canada could have ended
under-funding of First Nations education,
water, early childhood programs, domestic
violence shelters and ensured no sick child
was air transported alone in Quebec and
more. Instead... they bought a pipeline.”
Mike Hudema of Greenpeace Canada
summarized some other alternatives as
well, “The full $4.5 billion could pay for the
salaries of 60,000 nurses or 88,156 teachers.
It could cover the average tuition costs of
684,827 students, put solar power systems
on 180,000 homes, build 2045 wind
turbines, or build the world’s largest solar
power plant 16 times over.”
The bottom line is this: it took the
government a few weeks to come up with
$15-20 billion (we would be more specific,
but they aren’t giving us the complete
numbers) when there are so many other
urgent issues in Canada which we are
always told there aren’t enough resources
for. What’s more, there are many more
renewable energy options like wind and
solar which provide more jobs per dollar
invested.
Facts on the Ground Do Not Change
The other bottom line is: the facts on
the ground haven’t changed for the
stalled pipeline project. The widespread
opposition which brought it to a crisis has
not disappeared because the government
spent our money to buy it. In fact, there are
many more outraged by this massive and
unnecessary government bailout of Texas
billionaires.
Want proof? Over a thousand people rallied
in Vancouver on 12 hours notice the day the
announcement was made. This following
almost daily actions in front of the Kinder
Morgan tank farm in Burnaby, and the
largest ever divestment action in Vancouver,
where 1000 people marched to six of the
banks funding the project. The day after
the announcement, coordinated banner
drops were held across Vancouver and
Burnaby. Then almost 1000 more protested
in Victoria. A national day of action at the
offices of Members of Parliament will also
see over 100 actions taking place across
Canada on a few days notice on Monday,
June 4.
“The Trudeau authorization of a publicly
funded corporate bailout of the Kinder
Morgan pipeline and tanker project
will lead to yet another victory by the
Indigenous-led movement that has already
stopped the Northern Gateway and Energy
East tar sands pipeline projects. There is
certainty that Indigenous people hold Title
and Rights. Trudeau’s false assurances are
not fooling anyone, and Canadians are
well aware that he has placed liability onto
everyone in this country. Kinder Morgan
got our message that without the consent
of the many Nations along its path, the
pipeline would not be built - now it’s
time for the Trudeau government to get
the message,” said Chief Judy Wilson,
Neskonlith, Secwepemc Nation, and
Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of BC
Indian Chiefs (UBCIC).
“Approximately 100 First Nations in BC
are affected by the proposed new pipeline
and enormous increase in tanker traffic,
but only 30 have signed agreements with
Kinder Morgan, leaving more than two
thirds who have not provided any form
of consent,” reminded the Treaty Alliance
Against Tar Sands Expansion, a coalition
of 150 indigenous nations in Canada
the U.S.
In the Meantime?
What the government and pipeline
supporters keep repeating is that they
support the transition to renewable
resources, but in the meantime, we
need to keep people working, and in
the meantime, we need to keep the
economy going. None of these selfappointed
experts have provided any
meaningful proposal for how long
this “meantime” is supposed to last,
and how committing to 50 more
years of Tar Sands development
helps shorten it. In reality, it’s clear their
“meantime” will last as long as they can
profit from oil consumption, regardless of
the consequences.
In a detailed new article in the Globe
and Mail titled, “The Great Canadian
Climate Delusion” Thomas Homer-Dixon
and Yonatan Strauch argue: “Continued
investment in the oil sands generally, and
in the Trans Mountain pipeline specifically,
means Canada is doubling down on a nowin
bet. We’re betting that the world will
fail to meet the reduction targets in the
Paris Climate Agreement, thus needing
more and more oil, including our expensive
and polluting bitumen. We’re betting, in
other words, on climate disaster. If, however,
the world finally gets its act together and
significantly cuts emissions, then Canada
will lose much of its investment in
the oil sands and the Trans Mountain
pipeline expansion because the first oil
to be cut will be a higher-cost oil such
as ours.
Heads or tails, we lose. That’s the
idiocy of it. We can’t have our lucrative
oil sands profits and a safe climate,
too.”
They continue: “This isn’t just rhetoric.
Canada has no plan to meet its 2030
Paris Agreement emission targets
because it’s virtually impossible to
do so if the oil sands’ output rises to
Alberta’s cap of 100 million tonnes
of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
Under the agreement, the global oil
market won’t have room for our oil,
either. Scenarios to limit warming
to 2 degrees, the Paris Agreement’s
bottom-line target, clearly show that
oil demand must decline.”
They Attack Us Because They’re
Worried
Kinder Morgan and the government
of Canada are doubling down trying to
squeeze out the opposition. After the
sale was announced, they also won a BC
Supreme Court Case to expand the scope of
the 5-metre injunction zone around Kinder
Morgan’s Burnaby properties to all other
locations and equipment facilities in the
province. They also removed the 10-minute
warning period given to protesters before
police start making arrests. Over 200 people
have already been arrested violating the
previous injunction and blocking Kinder
Morgan facilities.
While these announcements could be seen
as disappointing, we need to understand
that they couldn’t be trying to continue to
limit our freedoms if they weren’t threatened
by them. They more attack us, the more we
can understand they feel threatened by us.
We Are Here on Behalf of the Future
“Those who take the most from the table, teach
contentment. Those for whom the taxes are
destined, demand sacrifice. Those who eat their
fill, speak to the hungry, of wonderful times
to come. Those who lead the country into the
abyss, call ruling difficult, for ordinary folk.” -
Bertolt Brecht
Our so-called leaders are leading us into
catastrophe. Our real leaders are the
Indigenous nations, the young people, the
tens of thousands who keep showing up
against this pipeline and proving there is a
real will to stop it. This has been a successful
formula, and we need to expand it to defeat
this dirty Tar Sands pipeline project once
and for all. They want to build a pipeline; we
want to build a better world.
No Bailout! No Pipeline!
People and Planet Before Pipelines and
Profit!
Follow Thomas Davies on Twitter: @thomasdavies59
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