Late last year, the federal review panel that approved the Northern Gateway project listed 209 conditions that had to be met. That panel began hearing public comments way back in mid-2010. Which is to say: This one panel was in operation for longer than it took for the actual Trans Mountain Pipeline to be scouted, conceived, planned, built and activated. Sixty years ago, we laid pipe. Now we lay paper.
We need a famine.
its called consensus building.
anyone remember the mackenzie river/valley pipeline review? that sucker took forever and killed it
for the sake of the cariboo herd
After the news of the approval they had a local eco-terrorist from the island on the news and she said she has talked to “people” who are prepared to “die” to stop the pipeline. I hope CSIS has begun investigating because I have no doubt at all that this woman is a terrorist leader.
When the media touts 4x thousands of jobs created by this project, do they include the 2x thousand jobs created by the paper shuffling overseers?
Gateway’s opponents are fond of declaring, with ex cathedra certainty, that the pipeline “will never be built.” But they can’t possibly know this. Which raises the question: What do they mean? There is an absolutist hue to the rhetoric of some environmental and aboriginal activists that suggests an unwillingness to accept the pipeline under any circumstances.
Governments are obliged to act within the law — to follow due process, to consult as required, etc. But so are their opponents. At some point, after all the conditions have been met and all the legal challenges have been exhausted, the critics will have to decide: Is there any process they will recognize as legitimate, if it does not give them the result they seek? Is there any point at which they concede? Or do they invoke the pernicious doctrine of “social licence” to justify violence and lawlessness?
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/06/18/andrew-coyne-no-mr-mulcair-its-not-northern-gateway-that-is-a-threat-to-our-social-order/
Well if it’s built no one can turn it off because it would be political suicide…During the build stage you are taking Billions, but when its moving Oil it’s in the Trillions.
The only thing that separates us from the third world is cheap abundant energy. Something todays generation of brainwashed tree huggers don’t seem to understand.
Slap Shot – never underestimate the stupidity of a pandering politician. Who would have thought that gas turbines for power generation would be cancelled for a total bill of over $1 billion in a province with high electricity costs?
I confess I don’t fully understand how oil pipelines, in the course of my less-than-40-year lifetime, transformed from hum-drum projects that would bat nary an eye into “THE WORK OF THE DEVIL THEY MUST BE STOPPED AT ALL COSTS!!!”
There are elements of western civilization that seem absolutely hell-bent on destroying said civilization to replace it with … who the heck knows. Those morons think it would be utopia. In reality it would be cold, dark, and brutal. My father-in-law grew up in a house without running water. He once told me, in a very calm tone of voice, that it is not a thing he would ever want to go back to. Today’s self-destructive fools would be well-served to listen to their elders .. but of course, they’re just SO SMART that they don’t need to listen to anyone.
The corporations should voluntarily shut down all energy pipelines in Canada (call it Operation Justin Time) for a few weeks or a month–I suggest September–and let people live with the results then ask them if they want them turned back on or banned?
…Is there any point at which they concede?…
No..and thats the thing about absolutists…to Me they are in effect, Traitors ala The Terminator, hell bent on taking our country back to the dark ages.
Personally, I think we should find them ALL a nice cold place somewhere north of 60 where they could spend 5 years in complete and total exile from anything to do with Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals…Lets see how well they fare..?? We could call it a “long term anthropological scientific study” Their Leader who would obvisouly want to join them (sic), David Suzuki could study the effects of their self desired nirvana while living amongst the True Believers.
Environmentalism is the new age Religion. We the Deniers are in effect, apostates Subject to their inquisition and upon being found guilty, destined for the gates of whatever hell we may or may not believe in.
But ya know, what really pisses me off with these Eco-Zombies is this: Not one of them EVER can come up with a solution that represents a Technologically feasible & “sustainable” (their word), method which is capable of producing BASELOAD POWER.
I Never hear of any of them talking about Thorium Based Liquid Salt Reactors..( a 1940’s Technology that was bypassed in favour of uranium based fissile systems – as you cant make bombs from Thorium)
Why is that eh..?? Cause Nukes are BAD..period – the science is settled. Right? Just ask Merkel.!
Gateway will go – regardless of what these MORONS have to say. And it will be good for the country. Period.
There are several issues here. The first is the “pipeline will never be built” mantra. The environmentalists are perfectly clear. It will never be built and they will do everything necessary to ensure that happens. After all, they have their various militant arms that have been engaging in terrorist activity for decades up to and including lethal injury, for those of you who remember tree-spiking. Be prepared for example for the intervention of Paul “Ramming Speed” Watson and Sea Shepherd.
Several questions follow from that. Does everything necessary include acts of violence and sabotage? Should there be violence and sabotage, does the Opposition in Parliament endorse such? And make no mistake, building NG will mean violence. Or does anyone here think that Weibo Ludwig was a one-time, unique occurrence? And in such event as violence occurring, will the responsible government, federal or provincial, act to deter it, or will it pull a Caledonia?
The second issue here is the degree to which the environmental and aboriginal opposition is being funded offshore. There are lots of other interests in the world, not all of them environmental, which do not want NG built. Is Canada prepared to levy sanctions on such entities when they emerge as supporters or funders of such extreme opposition noted above?
Blackouts during the final game of the Stanley cup. Boycott those in opposition, cut off their energy supply. Barricade all roads to tribal lands. Label those opposed, as racists since most who would benefit from this energy are Chinese, Indians,black Africans. How many billions are energy starved? Question how many billions do they want to die from lack of energy?
The world is cooling and will for decades to come,The world will need this energy and it will get it.It will either move by pipe,rail or truck, How cruel do you have to be to want it to stay in the ground so that billions will die? Paint the protesters as worse than Stalin,Hitler, or better yet, the Black plague. Don’t let up, pound away.Show them for what they are. Evil, wicked, mean, and nasty.
north of 60 “Governments are obliged to act within the law — to follow due process, to consult as required, etc.”
That’s what I don’t understand about Crazy Maggie’s boy, Justin. When the process created to depoliticize decisions approves the project, Harper’s approval should be routine. By saying he will stop the project, dickhead Trudeau is politicizing a so far non-political issue. I am sure Harper would have preferred to fast-track the process but chose to follow through existing non-political approval procedure even though the time frame gets downright silly.
Shipment of oil by rail increased 50% from last year in Canada. There is an exponential growth in rail shipments which result in more accidents/spills than pipelines and certainly with far greater “emissions.”
But the environment matters to the pipeline opponents as much as religion matters to Islamists, IOW it’s a cover. They represent an unholy alliance between dyed in the wool capitalist haters and Saudi/Steyer big oil & coal, trying to prevent their competitor, North American big oil, from expanding their markets. The watermelons give big ME/coal interests a pass then go after the oil sands, because it somehow suits their twisted ideology and self-interested ignorance.
Canada is the proving ground for the anti resource, climate change crowd. If they can cower voters into rejecting expansion of the oil sands, or it’s outright shutdown, then they can apply their Marxism elsewhere.
The problem for them are obvious environmental and financial realities. When someone, like my local NDP MLA, says we shouldn’t be shipping oil to China, he needs to be asked, “so that means you’re in favour of Keystone?” The NDP in BC got crushed for their opposition to pipelines and love of carbon pricing/taxation. So I think the watermelons have an uphill battle, asking voters to not only forgo jobs and higher revenues for their government, but to pay more tax themselves. This is a political non-starter.
The ignorant arrogance of pipeline haters is concerning. They respect democracy only when it agrees to their views, if not then feel justified in breaking the law; their contempt for the law and emotive fear mongering must be pointed out for the voters to see. The incoherence and hidden agendas of their arguments will hopefully see the light of day. If those in Toronto don’t see it, so what? Their weight in numbers only works in the provincial context.
Paper is the only thing that bureaucracies create.
As the saying goes….”bureaucracy is the process whereby pure energy is turned into solid waste”.
There exists in Osoyoos BC an enlightened First Nations Band led by Chief Clarence Louie.
PM Harper would be well advised to engage Chief Louie in getting the Northern Gateway Pipeline project completed.
Actually I would say we are far better at building pipelines today then 40 years ago. A lot of those old pipeline suffered from the design of watercrossings, both the bends and the amount clearance they gave for erosion. to be fair they did not have the HDD tech we have today or even a decade ago. That being said some companies are also better at doing it right then others.
Actually most of the FN have agreed to LNG pipelines and terminals. From their viewpoint the smaller amount of risk is outweighed by the benefits. Although their is a divide forming from the bands that live with the upstream impacts of LNG as opposed to those that just have the transit pipeline.