Premier John Horgan,
I am dismayed at the NDP’s interference with the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The BC government and the Federal Liberals are costing Canada an estimated 16 billion dollars of lost economic benefits a year.
The scare tactics that have many people in BC almost apoplectic when you mention pipelines is unrealistic. The existing Kinder Morgan pipeline has been safely pumping oil form Alberta since October 1953, almost 65 years without any major incidents. Oil tankers have been moving oil from the Port of Vancouver for over 65 years without any major incidents.
Currently, on average, about nine large ships a day move out of the Port of Vancouver. This includes freighters, cargo ships and cruise liners, each carrying 400,000 gallons to 2,000,000 gallons (1,514,164 to 7,570,823 litres) of fuel. These ships have been moving in and out of Vancouver harbour for decades without incident. Each ship that leaves the Port of Vancouver has a marine pilot onboard that directs the ship out of the port and to the exit point west of Victoria. Each large ship is tethered to two tugs during its exit from the port and has a one tug escort until it reaches Victoria on its 80 mile or 110 km journey to the Pacific Ocean.
The pipeline expansion would add another ship per day, or 34 oil tankers per month, leaving the Port of Vancouver. The 10 ships per day pales in comparison to Rotterdam, where 80 ships per day exit the port and enter one of the most congested shipping lanes in the world without incident.
The risk of an oil spill is minimal and must be taken in context with the loss of economic benefit to Canada. There is always risk in anything, airplanes crash, trains derail, freight trucks crash, busses crash, cars but none of these have ever been prohibited. The Queen of the North sank off Gill Island in Wright Sound with possibly 220,000 litres of diesel fuel and 23,000 litres of lubricating oil onboard. They have not banned ferries along this route. The BP oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico has not stopped drilling for oil in all the world’s oceans including eco-sensitive areas. The economic benefits of oil is a risk the rest of the world is willing to take and they are proceeding with BC and Alberta stagnate.
I am puzzled by the internationally funded (Rockefeller Foundation and Tides Foundation) protests in British Columbia. I do not know of nay other oil pipeline protests anywhere else in the world. Why British Columbia? Are there protests in PRISTINE Alaska where approximately 500,000 barrels of oil are shipped from their ports each day that travel into Juan de Fuca Strait on their way to Seattle? Has there ever been any protests in the building of the 2.5 MILLION (yes million) miles of pipeline in North America? Again, why British Columbia. Is there some ulterior motive that other countries do not want this pipeline built? Why would our Federal and Provincial governments cede to this pressure?
Of the 7,244 (Jan 2017) oil tankers in the world (4,295 over 1000 DWT), many are safely entertaining and exiting oil ports worldwide every day without protest or incident.
Canada needs oil revenues, and as we fail to supply the market, other countries are moving in to satisfy the world market demands. Canada loses revenue while other countries become wealthier due to the protests. I am dismayed how our politicians can let so few people destroy our economy. What right do these protestors have to decide the economic wellbeing of Canada?
There are over 92 million barrels (14 billion litres) of oil consumed worldwide each day, un-protested, that are fuelling the global economy and Canada is missing this economic trade and is importing 759,000 barrels (120 million litres) of oil a day. Mr. Horgan, I realize you have taken a political stance on the pipeline and have to cede to the Green Parties policies as well, but I hope you will reconsider the NDP’s policy and work towards getting this pipeline built.
I have some other concerns that are outside of your responsibility but are issues surrounding the pipeline that have arisen since you blocked Kinder Morgan form proceeding with construction.
The Liberal government has paid Kinder Morgan 4.5 BILLION dollars for a 65-year-old pipeline. This pipeline is possibly in the last stages of its life cycle where the average lifetime of a pipeline is 35 years. Who accepts the potential liability now? Kinder Morgan wanted to build a 7.5 billion dollar pipeline, with new modern materials, new safety features and new technologies. Why would the NDP government want to stop this project with so few environmental reasons for doing so? Why did the Canadian government purchase a pipeline from a company that was already in business to transport oil? The same eco and international reasons for protests exist. Just because Canada now owns the pipelines does not change the reasons for the protests and the social/environmental uprisings over the construction. Are the Canadian taxpayers now expected to fund the 7.5 billion dollar expansion pipeline with potential delays by protest groups? What is the eventual cost expected to be? If a private company could not build the pipeline, why does the Liberal government feel they can build it? Perhaps they will remove the impediments they put in place to make it difficult for private business to move oil
If the protestors and environmentalist in British Columbia are so worried about ocean pollution, why are they not protesting the 130,000,000 litres (one hundred and thirty million litres) of sewage that Victoria discharges in the strait of Juan de Fuca EVERY DAY, or the water quality in False Creek. Protest something that IS happening not something that MIGHT happen.
Gerald Butts, Justing Trudeau, the Liberal Government of Canada and the NDP and Green Parties of British Columbia have cost the Canadian Economy billions of dollars in lost and never recoverable revenues that could have made the economy of Canada exceed our pathetic growth in GDP of 0.03 per cent.
While our neighbour the USA has a current growth of 4.1 per cent GDP partly due to its unrestricted oil and gas exploration, drilling and moving oil through pipelines to tankers that deliver to world markets.
Jack Masterman,
Port Hardy