Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Trudeau's Folly - Opposition Wants It Scrapped.
Canada has a pipeline problem. The problem is we own one. It's Kinder Morgan's old Trans-Mountain pipeline that we bought from those Texas bandits at way over market value. The new owner, that would be Canada, is poised to greatly expand the pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast.
When Bill Morneau cut the overly generous cheque to Kinder Morgan we were given the government's numbers on total project costs. The latest estimates have swollen by some 70 per cent. You can think of it now as "Trudeau's Folly."
An Angus Reid poll found that Canadians are losing their appetite for Trudeau's Folly. A Nanos poll confirmed it.
Citing these polls, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, NDP environment critic Laurel Collins, as well as the Greens' parliamentary leader Elizabeth May, today called on the federal government to scrap the Trans Mountain expansion.
Of course, scrapping the TMX expansion would probably sound the death knell for the Teck Frontier mine that is slated to put an extra 260,000 barrels a day of bitumen into the system.
what kind of journalist writes an article ABOUT A POLL without identifying the poll or stating the numbers? i'm running out of flat surfaces to bang my head against...it's the canadian press for f's sake!
ReplyDeleteTek Frontier is a friggen dream.
ReplyDeleteThere ar no backers for this project .
It is not going to happen.
TB
ReplyDeleteI expect you're right, TB. It's a $20 billion project. Teck's entire market capitalization is only $10 billion. It needs a major equity partner which would leave Teck with a minority position, possibly a small minority position. If the feds approve the project it would leave Trudeau no alternative but to drive home TMX which, at this point, is losing public support.
I wonder if JT is kicking himself in the pants for reneging on his 2015 "social licence" promise. Remember when he spelled it out - the only people who could grant social licence were those directly impacted. Then the entire Lower Mainland rose up against it.
Never mind, you churl. Here it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://angusreid.org/tmx-february-2020/
So not hard to find.
Strange anonymouse. I clicked on the link provided and was regaled immediately with the story. I may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but why are you unable to follow simple direction ?
ReplyDeleteI suspect Tek Frontier will be looking for subsidies to cover the other $10 billion. They know how eager Trudeau and Kenny are to shell out for Big Oil.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Tek may want permission in order to tie it up and then intend to sit on it for as many years is required to bring the price per barrel up.
I did some arithmetic with a calculator, and came to a figure of about $340 for every man, woman and child in Canada for that pipeline--more when the next overrun figures come out, of course. So for my household that's a thousand bucks. All so we can help fry the planet more. Nice to know the government has its priorities straight. I want my money back.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, the article kind of looks like it ends quickly but it continues lower down after that break, and it starts talking about the poll a few paragraphs in.
ReplyDeleteToby, Teck has a market cap of $10 billion. Unless they can find a buyer for all their assets they would be hard pressed to raise anywhere near $10 billion to put into Frontier.
ReplyDeletePLG - relax. That grand is peanuts. Wait until you get the bill for your share of the costs of cleaning up the Athabasca tailing ponds and those thousands of orphan wells.
ReplyDelete.. speaking of disasters.. How bout them blockades ? You know.. them tree huggin, rad ecofrucks that MacKay and Scheer th Smeer all shoutin n snoutin about eh ? Campin out on th railway tracks as a favor to them scary injun ones the RCMP dragged away
ReplyDeleteOK .. Enough..
the salamander can backtrack such a money and influence trail and really easily when its clear as day and in fresh moist BC snow. Especially when the trail leads to a confused nation, bitter politics & irresponsible Mainstream Media pitting Canadians against Canadians and/or Canadians against First Nations !
Lets start in Asia where LNG prices have tanked.. oversupply !
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OK.. 'tidewater' as government calls it, British Columbia Is what I call it. Coastal baby !
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A 100% foreign consortium creates LNG Canada to export from a taxpayer subsidized supertanker port and a liquifaction plant to Asia
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The foreign consortium contracts TC Energy to design, build, operate a taxpayer subsidized natural gas pipeline across northern BC. It is called Coastal GasLink and applies for approval and oddly enough the BC and Federal Governments seem fine with delegating to Coastal GasLink, the consultations and approvals to go right through the Territorial lands of the Wet'suwet'en peoples / clans before getting to Kitimaat.
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Uh Oh.. Mistakes made. A Benefits Agreement was OK for Tribal Chiefs and Band Councils of Status Indians under the Indian Act and their reserves. but its truly hinky. It specifies Band Leadership must ensure Band Members do not protest publically about the agreement. Hereditary Chiefs do not agree
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BC Supreme Court allows an injunction and RCMP violently arrest peaceful Wet'swet'en protesters on their own territory. Though that judge allowed the injunction, she also decared a 'Golden Thread' ran through the history and her court was not a place to consider or determine Aboriginal Title
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Coastal GasLink workers doing soil samples, surveying etc begin building 'Man Camps' bulldozing trees, clearing land for pipeline, enraging Hereditary Chiefs
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Hereditary Chiefs evict Coastal GasLink from their Territory
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The 13 year long Delgamuukw Supreme court 1984 to 1997 is resolved but a new trial is ordered. To clear up errors in filing re pleadings and evidence. Plaintiff 'loses' after astronomical legal costs, yet Judges also declare Aboriginal Title is undeniable, unextinguishable and must not be infringed upon. Further, Government must always undertake proper and full consultation with First Nations per Constitution
backtrack
We can backtrack all the way back to the 1700's but this is the here and now..
and bottom line is.. this disaster which has brewed since way back when, is currently very simple
This shocking conundrum is historic already, sensationally expensive and disruptive
yet at its current root is Canada's RCMP defending a foreign consortium infringing on Aboriginal Title
with consent of Federal and Provicial BC Governments who are complicit & want to extinguish Aboriginal Title
Jason Kenney happily piling on and calling the peaceful protests "anarchy"
as Albertan counter protesters gang up and tear down any rail barricades
and an Alberta Court issues legal injunctions on behalf of the railways
which in my view is neither surprising or unreasonable..
but "anarchy" .. ? What next Jason..? Shoot them via RCMP 'lethal overwatch' ?
Perhaps the whole carbon economy subsidy thing is coming to a head?
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly out of control.
How long before the unsuspecting Canadian taxpayer says..
Holy shit we've been fucked!!
TB
ReplyDeleteSal, I've been mulling over an essay idea about social justice as the battlefield for the next few decades. It underlies so much of the unrest that plagues societies and governments today on issues such as climate change, inequality, populism, even democracy itself. We are losing social cohesion and dividing, or being divided, into camps. In some cases we're experiencing something akin to tribalism, Lord of the Flies type tribalism.
The neoliberal era seems to have left governments incapable of dealing with these challenges no matter that they pay lip service to some. Meaningful, progressive reform cannot get traction when the status quo serves narrow interests so well.
The Wet'suwet'en unrest is perhaps the miners' canary for what awaits us on a much broader scale in the next decade or two. We know, for example, that there won't be many free market solutions to the more demanding impacts of climate change. How we address these burdens will involve issues of sharing, equality, rationing in some cases - social justice.
We shall see. For now it's just a musing.
ReplyDeleteTB, it's pretty difficult to predict how this will play out and the potential scope of its ripple effects. Will Trudeau have the vision to find a way forward? I'm not sure.