Imagine the facial expression on the
staff person writing up Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau’s schedule this month.
“June 17. 7pm – Declare ‘National
Climate Emergency’. June 18. 4pm –
Re-Approve Trans Mountain Pipeline
Expansion (TMX)” Hopefully one
day they will write a memoir detailing
the cynical planning that went into
that 24 hour period, but for now, we
have to wade through Trudeau and
the mainstream media chorus doing
their best to justify the two obviously
contradictory announcements.
“Vancouver gas prices are too high
because the pipeline isn’t built.”
“Canada doesn’t get enough money for
its Tar Sands oil because it can’t get to
Chinese markets.”
“We need to restore ‘market confidence’
that we can get more big projects like
this built.”
“All the oil workers will lose their jobs
if we don’t approve this.”
“Canada is too small to make any real
difference regardless.”
We will get to each of these weak
arguments individually, but it’s
important to point out that neither
Trudeau or the army of ‘expert’ newspaper
columnists dared ask the two most simple
and important questions:
1. If the world’s best and broadest scientific
consensus is that we are indeed in a
“climate emergency” which threatens
the future of humanity, and Canada
is nowhere near its United Nations
climate targets even before approving
the Tar Sands Pipeline, how can we
even consider approving it?
2. Is the Trans Mountain Pipeline
really the only reasonable possible
solution for Canada’s economy, gas
prices and green transition?
Are there really no other
good options?
The Pipeline Will Fix Gas
Prices?
Despite the Alberta government
spending millions of dollars on
billboards all around Vancouver
leading up to the TMX
announcement, high gas prices
are not because we don’t have
another pipeline. Economist
Robyn Allan, former CEO of
the Insurance Corporation of
BC, and Marc Eliesen, former chairman
and CEO of BC Hydro and a former
director of Suncor, wrote a 47-page
report to the BC Utilities Commission
to clarify that blaming price spikes on
“chronic shortages” or lack of pipeline
capacity appears “designed to serve the
price gouging behaviour of suppliers
rather than shed light on actual market
factors and conditions.” The report found
that just four suppliers - Suncor, Imperial,
Shell and Parkland - control the market
in the Lower Mainland and that these
four suppliers are likely responsible for
“excessive and volatile” prices since 2015.
Mythical Asian Markets
And those mythical “Asian
markets” which are willing to
pay a high price for Alberta
bitumen? David Anderson,
former Liberal Minister of
Environment who served 10 years in
the cabinets of prime ministers Jean
Chretien and Paul Martin, sent letters
to six members of Trudeau’s cabinet
emphasizing, “There is no credible
evidence to suggest that Asia is likely to
be a reliable or a significant market for
Alberta bitumen.” Anderson detailed
how Asian refineries already have better
supply options with conventional light
and medium crude oil from Nigeria
and the Middle East because Alberta
bitumen is expensive to produce, hard
to handle, and provides no security of
supply advantages.
“Market Confidence” at the Expense
of the Planet and Workers
Do we really want to sacrifice the
planet and the future to create “market
confidence” so that huge unsustainable
resource extraction mega-projects can
be built? Just the opposite! Putting
“the market” above all else is what
got us into this mess in the first place.
Especially when that always ends up
being “ensuring corporate profits at the
expense of all else.”
The Corporate Mapping Project report,
released by Parkland Institute and the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
B.C. office, analyzed the profits of
Canada’s five largest oil producers.
Turns out Suncor, CNRL, Cenovus,
Imperial and Husky have remained
“incredibly profitable” according to lead
author Ian Hussey - with a combined
aggregate gross profit of $46.6 billion
in 2017. “There’s no question that the
price crash had a major impact on the
industry in Alberta, most importantly on
the almost 20,000 workers who lost their
jobs in 2015, but the Big Five are doing
just fine,” Hussey said.
The oil company executives might be
doing fine, but what about the 400
workers who are losing their jobs as
Suncor plans to build a fleet of more than
150 driverless hauling
trucks over the next six
years?
What about the 35,000
unionized members of
the B.C. Building Trades
who had their Saturday
overtime cut-back as the
contractors association
stalled negotiations
and the Labour Board
refused to allow them to
strike before enforcing a
settlement?
Too Small to Make a
Difference?
Never one to lose an
opportunity to try
and turn back history,
National Post columnist
Rex Murphy called climate change, “a
global problem what Canada has not
the least competence to fix.” He was
repeating an often employed tactic - used
when it’s no longer possible to argue that
Canada is being responsible for its carbon
emissions. This rhetoric disregards a few
important things. First, Canada has the
world’s 10th largest economy. Second,
Canada produces more greenhouse gas
emission per capita than any other G20
country. “It’s because of the oilsands and
because of transportation,” commented
Catherine Abreu, executive director of
the Climate Action Network Canada.
While transportation might be more
understandable given that Canada also
has the second largest land mass in the
world – the Alberta oil sands is a massive
polluter causing exponential damage to
the environment.
Cracks Showing
Already the re-approval is on shaky
ground. The Shxwowhamel First Nation
has announced it now opposes the pipeline
because the government’s consultation
process was so weak. Former Supreme
Court of Canada justice Frank Iacobucci,
who was charged with overseeing
the court-ordered consultations with
Indigenous people, only met community
leaders once, at a gathering with other
Indigenous Nations in Vancouver. He
did not satisfy community concerns that
the construction route for the pipeline
would run through an ancient village
and desecrate or destroy a 1,400-year-old
sacred site full of artifacts, 20 traditional
homes (called pit houses), and possible
gravesites.
The Shxwowhamel First Nation will
now join the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, the
Squamish Nation and the Coldwater
community who have all confirmed they
will also challenge the re-approval of the
pipeline project.
Writing in the National Observer on June
27, Sven Biggs, a campaigner for Stand.
Earth, also summarized, “The last time
we checked in with the National Energy
Board, only two of seven segments of
the Trans Mountain pipeline route were
fully approved. Over a quarter of the new
pipeline route has not been approved.
And 25 hearings have yet to take place —
including for the Fraser
River crossing, Burnaby
Mountain tunnel, and
areas where schools,
homes and municipal
water supplies are at risk.
As of the latest public
update from the province
of British Columbia, 658
permits are still being
reviewed and 243 have
not even been applied
for.”
Our Struggle Continues,
the Movement is
Growing
So while all of the
arguments thrown
out by politicians and
mainstream media
pundits are weak at best,
they are also irrelevant if we choose not to
disregard the scientific realities – as people
like Justin Trudeau and Rex Murphy do
on purpose. The political reality is also
one where inequality is growing and
the cost of living is increasing much
faster than wages. Clearly, the status
quo is not sustainable for the planet or
the vast majority of people living on it.
Clearly, there are more solutions than just
building this pipeline.
It has been ten years of disappointing
government and corporate announcement
about the TMX pipeline, but it has also
been ten years that communities have
come together to make sure it has not
been built. Now is not the time to give
up. Now is the time to get bigger, broader
and bolder in our actions. The climate
and economic crises negatively impact
the vast majority of people - that makes
for a lot of potential allies. We need
to continue to educate, organize and
mobilize to demand the government
cancel the Trans Mountain Pipeline
Expansion, and focus on real solutions
for the people and the planet instead of
pipelines and profits.
Follow Thomas Davies on Twitter: @thomasdavies59
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