From a purely national perspective, the federal Liberal government came up with a balanced decision this week on pipelines and tankers. It announced a ban on crude oil tankers along B.C.’s North Coast and rejected the Enbridge-backed Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat. At the same time, however, it approved Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline replacement project between Alberta and Wisconsin and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to Burnaby.
On the face of it, the decision appears to balance environmental and economic considerations. These are the tough choices governments have to make. Why then are so many critics in B.C. calling the Kinder Morgan decision a betrayal and vowing to fight it right to the beaches?
One reason is that the Liberals failed to live up to their pre-election promise that “only communities can give permission.”
In announcing the decision on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it “was in the best interests of Canada” and called it “a major win for Canadian workers, for Canadian families and the Canadian economy.” Speaking to Coast Reporter this week, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP Pam Goldsmith-Jones said: “In the end, this decision has been made by cabinet with a view to the entire country.”
It’s all about the country because community permission, in this case, was not obtained. Municipalities, First Nations, environmentalists and ordinary citizens in the Greater Vancouver area and beyond have made their opposition clear. Even some Liberal MPs in Lower Mainland ridings have sounded off against the expansion project, recognizing the level of public anger it has generated and no doubt fearing it could be a serious political problem come next election.
The reality is, most people on the South Coast don’t want five to seven times more tankers loaded with diluted bitumen plying the waters of the Salish Sea. As David Black wrote in an opinion piece last month, “No one in the world has ever recovered even 15 per cent of a conventional crude oil spill, let alone a bitumen spill.” Refined gasoline and diesel, on the other hand, evaporate within days and often require little or no remediation.
Insisting that Alberta crude be refined before shipping it to Asia would have truly balanced national and community interests. It would have meant more economic benefits and far less environmental risk.
And it would have meant the Liberals actually meant what they said to get elected.
