Open Letters to our Liberal MPs re: Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline.
Below are two letters from PCM members in the GTA to our Liberal MPs.
Letter #1
There is nowhere near enough benefit to Canadians from the pipeline to warrant the extreme risks of environmental damage that could ensue from the building of the pipeline.
Greetings,
I hope you will bring to caucus my concerns about the possibility of a government bail-out of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
You have expressed concern for the environment and for the risks associated with climate change. I thank you for that. I’d like to suggest that if government funding is used to support energy production, it be channeled entirely into renewable forms of energy such as solar, wind, tidal and hydro-electric projects with low environmental impacts.
There is growing evidence — as if common sense were not enough — to demonstrate that transporting diluted bitumen via pipeline is not a good business proposition and not one that taxpayers should be supporting.
Around the world, the oil industry’s customers are turning in huge numbers to renewable sources of energy, which in turn have gone down in price with mass production and are more accessible than ever.* Oil prices are volatile. Dependence on exporting close-to-raw materials such as dilbit is just that . . . economic dependence rather than autonomy.
Never mind that the more fossil fuels we extract and burn, the closer we approach the extinction of the human race, amid devastating social disruption.
Certainly there is nowhere near enough benefit to Canadians from the pipeline to warrant the extreme risks of environmental damage that could ensue from the building of the pipeline.
In case you have not already seen it, I draw your attention to an article in the National Observer about the financial viability of the pipeline:
What’s behind Kinder Morgan’s May 31 deadline?
The pipeline has already demonstrated that it is socially divisive. (Or rather, that its sponsors are socially divisive.)
First Nations in British Columbia have made it clear that they have not given permission for the pipeline to be built on their lands, and that they are unlikely to consent even in exchange for more money than the pipeline is worth in economic terms. Some workers in Alberta (although certainly not all) have been led to believe that the pipeline will create jobs — rather an iffy proposition — and are determined that it must be built.
True commitment to reconciliation with First Nations and decolonization demands respect for traditional lands and their indigenous occupants.
Please bring these concerns to your discussions of these issues in government caucus.
Sincerely yours,
Sue Craig
*To illustrate this point, I attach photos of a major solar installation on a neighbour’s house. This neighbour, having covered the south side of the roof with panels, is now also installing them on the north side, where they will receive sun during the summer months.
Around the world, the oil industry’s customers are turning in huge numbers to renewable sources of energy.
Letter #2
All the more reason to eliminate ISDS from trade deals and insist on fair trade agreements that allow countries to make regulations and decisions in the public interest, that protect the environment, and our commitment to Indigenous Rights.
Cc: Justice Minitser, Jody Wilson-Raybould ; Prime Minister Trudeau
Dear M.P.
I’m very concerned that the Prime Minister will orchestrate some sort of tax-payer bail-out for the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline.
I’m opposed to the pipeline project for several reasons, but to have us pay this U.S. company (a descendant of ENRON) to help complete this project would be an outrage.
I oppose the pipeline, and the tanker traffic that would follow, as environmental hazards. The PM always refers to a lump sum the government has allocated for environmental protection, but when there is a spill, the damage is done. The existing Trans Mountain pipeline has had 82 spills since 1961. And it was not carrying dilbit – the most toxic form of oil. A pipeline or tanker spill could be devastating for Vancouver, for freshwater sources and/or for the ocean ecosystem.
I oppose the pipeline and tanker project also because it flies in the face of reconciliation. The majority of Indigenous Nations affected by it have not given consent.
(Chief Bob Chamberlin, vice-president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said he wants a joint consultation with all the communities on the pipeline route through British Columbia. “This does not have First Nations consent and we value the environment more than money,” he added. – CTV News, April 5, 2018)
An aside: The idea of supporting KM with taxpayer money makes me wonder if the Prime Minister is trying preempt a trade lawsuit under ISDS provisions (Investor-state dispute settlement process). All the more reason to eliminate ISDS from trade deals and insist on fair trade agreements that allow countries to make regulations and decisions in the public interest, that protect the environment, and our commitment to Indigenous Rights.
Sincerely,
Silvia Wineland
