A Texan oil executive snaps his fingers and Prime Minister Trudeau flies home to hold an emergency meeting with BC and Alberta. Wow. Kinda makes you wonder who's running the country. This is not the Trudeau I remember. That Trudeau would have flipped the billionaire the bird and told him to sit down, be quiet and wait until he had ironed out the constitutional flap between BC and Alberta.
And it's only that – a flap. Just because a pipeline is deemed a federal project when it crosses provincial boundaries doesn't mean it guts a province's obligation to protect its citizens' health and environment. Mr Trudeau (the Second) doesn't seem to know the Constitution of Mr Trudeau (the First). Since Pierre rescued it from England in 1982 we are more "cooperative federation" than "confederation." That means these sort of jurisdictional issues have to be sorted out in our very messy but singularly Canadian way – with conversations, many, many conversations. Even a referral to the Supreme Court may not resolve the matter.
But apparently, all that is beside the point because the billionaire head of Kinder Morgan – he of the snapping fingers – has given our country until May 31st to settle things or he will stop all work on the pipeline.
So, Mr Trudeau (the Second) has dispatched his Finance Minister to find enough money from American hedge funds to buy the oil executive's peace of mind. What a racket. "Hey there, Canada. Tell ya what. Ah'll keep building this dang pipeline. But y'all gotta make sure Ah don't lose any more money. Call it ... insurance."
And he's got backup. China has said to Canada: no trade deal without a pipeline to tide water. And there are some high rolling lawyers in the deep background waiting for a chance to make some big bucks if Kinder Morgan launches a nasty NAFTA trade dispute. (Chapter 11 of NAFTA allows corporations to sue nations if they lose profits due measure taken by a municipality or province or country.)
Mr Trudeau (the Second) is trying to avoid all that. He'll soon table legislation asserting federal authority over pipelines that cross provincial borders, which begs the question: if he is so sure he has that authority now, why does he need special legislation?
Of course, there's more to the story than meets the eye. There always is. If half of what they're saying about Kinder Morgan is true, you have to wonder why we're jumping so high. Enron spin-off, scofflaw, poor business management, trouble with financing pipelines – do we really want to go into business with this company?
As for the government's story that we'll get a better price in Asian markets for our bitumen, well that's a BS – a Baloney Sandwich. The Chinese and South East Asian countries will pay significantly less for a barrel of oil sands oil than US refineries do now. Even if Kinder Morgan's pipeline is built, expect to see most of the oil shipped not east, but south to refineries around Seattle.
Judging from previous spills of bitumen from the oil sands, BC has a right to be worried. Remember the Enbridge spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan? That spill cost a billion dollars to clean up; and the river is still contaminated. It's impossible to get all of the bitumen out of an ecosystem.
Premier Horgan of BC has said he could live with refined bitumen as it would pose less of an environmental hazard.
What a concept! Taking a natural resource that we own and creating good jobs to add value before exporting it.
Naw ... let's just dig it up, pay the Texan his protection money, ship it out and let the next generation pick up the tab.
David McLaren
Neyaashiinigmiing, ON
