On May 19, the National Energy Board granted approval for the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion project.
The next day, the mayors in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland were lining up against it.
As the Financial Post put it on May 20, “‘There is nothing Kinder Morgan Canada can do to make its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion acceptable to B.C.’s Lower Mainland residents,’ Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said Friday, as opposition groups said they would continue to fight the project okayed this week by the federal energy regulator.
“‘We’ve got a solid economy here that is firmly grounded in our clean and green brand, from tourism to construction and development and the tech economy, and we can’t risk an oil spill damaging that and affecting hundreds of thousands of jobs,’ Robertson said Friday, a day after the National Energy Board recommended that Ottawa approve the $6.8 billion project, while attaching 157 conditions.”
The mayor of Burnaby, terminus of the pipeline and home of its associate port, thought the benefits to the Lower Mainland economy would be “laughable,” according to the Financial Post.
Well, isn’t that nice. Maybe they forgot why Lotusland exists in the first place.
To quote the Port of Vancouver website: “The Port of Vancouver is the third largest port in North America in terms of total tonnage moved in and out of the port. We’re home to 27 major marine cargo terminals, three Class 1 railroads, and a full range of facilities and services to the international shipping community.”
That includes oil.
In other words, it is Canada’s largest port, and likely our most important. While Prince Rupert and Kitimat are very minor players, Vancouver is our gateway to the Pacific, and indeed, much of the world.
Vancouver (referring to the greater Vancouver area) exists for one primary reason: to be that gateway. Chinese labourers died in the multitudes building the railway connecting to it. The Canadian Pacific Railway bound a nation together, primarily because of the Port of Vancouver. We need it to ship out nearly all of our exports from Western Canada. Without it, half our country would wither on the vine.
That is why the Trans Mountain Pipeline was built in the first place. And that is why its expansion is critical to the growth of our country. If it had been completed several years ago, the province of Alberta would not be in as dire straits, financially, as it is today. Literally billions of dollars are left on the table each year because Western Canada sells its oil almost exclusively to one customer, the United States, and at a steep discount. That discount means less money for schools, hospitals and every other service government provides.
No matter what the price of oil is, Canada needs that pipeline to be built. We need Northern Gateway, too, but we need Trans Mountain Expansion more. It has greater capacity and runs along an existing pipeline corridor.
The National Energy Board stated, “Taking into account all the evidence, considering all relevant factors, and given that there are considerable benefits nationally, regionally and to some degree, locally, the Board found that the benefits of the project would outweigh the residual burdens.”
It’s time for Vancouver et al. to start thinking of others besides themselves.
