Thursday, August 30, 2018

Federal Court - Thumbs Down on Trudeau Memorial Pipeline

"Sold Out" Liberal - Indeed

The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected the Trudeau government's sham approval of the TransMountain pipeline project.

In a written decision, the court says the energy board’s review was so flawed that the federal government could not rely on it as a basis for its decision to approve the expansion.
"So flawed" to be sure. Rigged would be a more apt description. Yet that didn't stop the Trudeau government from declaring the process legitimate, not when it came to steamrollering dissent and protests from First Nations groups, environmentalists, the province of British Columbia and several of its most heavily populated municipalities.

Rigged.

There's a word that will be heard a lot in next year's federal election campaign.

Rigged.

More from the National Observer:
The decision, announced Aug. 30, is the first major court defeat for the project, requiring the government to ask the federal energy regulator or its successor to redo a federal environmental evaluation and correct a “critical” mistake it made to ignore the consequences of increased oil tanker traffic off the coast of British Columbia.

The decision will also require the Trudeau government to restart its consultations with First Nations about the project, before construction can proceed. 
Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Thursday he had received the ruling and was "taking the appropriate time to review the decision." The minister said he would make further comments later in the day.
...The unanimous ruling criticized the Trudeau government for making a decision based on inadequate evidence from the report prepared by the National Energy Board after it held hearings to review the project. 
It also said the government’s consultation process with First Nations wasn’t meaningful or adequate. 
“Indeed, a review of the record of the consultation process discloses that Canada displayed a closed-mindedness when concerns were expressed about the Board’s report and was reluctant to depart from the findings and recommendations of the Board,” said the ruling, drafted by Justice Eleanor Dawson. 
“With rare exceptions, Canada did not dialogue meaningfully with the Indigenous applicants about their concerns about the Board’s review. Instead, Canada’s representatives were focused on transmitting concerns of the Indigenous applicants to the decision-makers and nothing more. Canada was obliged to do more than passively hear and receive the real concerns of the Indigenous applicants.”
Tankers, Tankers, Tankers.

The Trudeau government tried to keep the hazards of an armada of bitumen laden supertankers and the associated risk to British Columbia's coastal waters out of the review process. The court jumped all over that nonsense.
“The unjustified failure to assess the effects of marine shipping under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, and the resulting flawed conclusion about the effects of the Project was so critical that the Governor in Council could not functionally make the kind of assessment of the Project’s environmental effects and the public interest that the legislation requires.”
That's why Justin chose Dame Cathy McKenna as his environment minister. She'll do whatever she's told.

UPDATE:

Here's a shocker. Kinder Morgan shareholders just voted overwhelmingly to confirm the sale of the pipeline to the federal government for the laughable (for them) sum of $4.5 billion.
Asked if Canada could walk away from the deal if the ruling quashes the permit, a finance department spokesman said the agreement has been signed and there's no backing out.
Reacting to the unanimous rejection of the TransMountain process, Trudeau finmin, 'Job Churn' Morneau, this morning confirmed that the purchase of the pipeline will complete "as early as tomorrow."

And so Kinder Morgan reaps a 700+ per cent profit on a derelict pipeline it has owned for just over a decade. Wouldn't you like to get a 70% annual return on your money?

One thing that is clear. If the pipeline project has to go back for an honest environmental review, that can't be entrusted to the federal government. They knew the approval process was rigged and said so repeatedly during the 2015 election campaign only to embrace it once elected.

The Trudeau government ensured that its own pipeline review was rigged. The Trudeau government has repeatedly and persistently lied to Canadians and, especially, to British Columbians about matters such as safety and spills. Now that this same government will have 4.5 Billion reasons to keep rigging and lying, they are not to be trusted.

Why not allow a body whose credibility does not lie in smoking tatters do an honest review? A body such as the Royal Society of Canada should fit the bill. Of course if Trudeau wanted an honest assessment he would have done it himself, just as he promised in the 2015 campaign. Curiously, he didn't.


14 comments:

Deacon Jester said...

Someone really ought to find a way to see if Justice Kenneth Affleck is prepared to continue to sentence protesters. The fuckwadded political hack probably still is.

Deacon Jester said...

I don't understand why Sandy Garrosino or someone hasn't done a deep dive into Affleck's history. I mean the guys was once a tobacco lawyer. There's shit in that closet.

John's Aghast said...

Oh well, its only 1/3 the cost of Site C, and the rest of Canada will chip in to pay for it. Site C, on the other hand, is totally at the cost of BC taxpayers. And we can always hope that when "THEY" sell BC Hydro we'll get a bigger return on our investment than when/if "THEY" sell KM.

Gyor said...

As I understand it construction has began already so even though the Pipeline will be built, I doubt it will be ever used because of lawsuits. It's an expensive make work project for BC and Alberta.

Lorne said...

There is no way hat Trudeau will be able to spin this mess going into the next election. He has betrayed all of us, and it is going to cost all of us dearly.

Deacon Jester said...

Notwithstanding here we come. How's that for a perversion of his father's legacy?

Northern PoV said...

For a measly $10M (the cancellation fee) Jr. could pull the plug on this silly deal.

Toby said...

"The Federal Court of Appeal has overturned Ottawa's approval of the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, but Finance Minister Bill Morneau is pledging to push ahead with his government's purchase of the project.

Even with the court decision, Morneau said the project is in the national interest and needs to go ahead."

https://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-235250-4-.htm#235250

The Mound of Sound said...


All that tells me, Toby, is that the fix is in deep with this deplorable Liberal government and its thuggish leader.

Trailblazer said...

@ Gynor
As I understand it construction has began already so even though the Pipeline will be built, I doubt it will be ever used..

We could use it to pipe BC wine to Alberta!

@ Mound.
All that tells me, Toby, is that the fix is in deep with this deplorable Liberal government and its thuggish leader.

I suggest following the money.
Near as I can guess Canadian Banks have likely been bailed out and some Liberal insiders.

This is becoming another BC Rail!
Who benefits; not the taxpayer..

TB

Trailblazer said...

The origins of the decision to bow to first nations concerns can be traced back to the unwillingness of 'Canada' to reach a meaningful agreement with first nations on the mutual occupation of this land..
The nicey nice speeches, to the FN, since confederation were hollow and friggen dishonest with no real attempt to divvy up our natural resources to the original occupants of this land we call Canada.

Now it bites us in the arse and we , the white culture, scurry around to justify the rape of the land to profit foreigners.

TB

John's Aghast said...

One down, Site C to go.

Anonymous said...

JT won't have to spin anything. The Cons are in no position to complain since they would have done the same thing.

Cap

Troy said...

Just realized, a properly built pipeline, with proper daily maintenance on it, probably runs the cost of the pipeline up through the stratosphere. $20 billion for an improperly built pipeline. An extra $6 to $12 billion to built it right, in the end, as such would tack on an extra year of development. Any costs heavily outweigh any sort of benefit of having built the damn thing, whether or not it was properly built from the start.

And then we're getting into environmental impact when the pipeline leaks, because regardless of how well built this thing would be if it ever gets built, it'll still wear down quickly. Daily shutdowns eventually, within a short lifespan.

One spill: that might as well be a 1/4 billion dollar plus disaster wherever it occurs. On land. On the water, the cost is probably incalculable.

This was an albatross from the get-go. A scam.

The Conservative government never wanted a properly built thing, nor did the Liberals ever bother with that once assuming power, either.

And Enron... I mean Kinder-Morgan was never bothered by any of this. They just wanted the money and to get out quick. And the Liberal government gave K-M everything they asked for, and assumed all the costs, and none of the reward.