Battle lines drawn in B.C.
Clark backs Trans Mountain, foes isolated
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark could have been the last holdout on the Trans Mountain pipeline. Instead she stood behind the expansion of the project Wednesday, ignoring the rage that erupted in her province in the aftermath of Tuesday’s approval and demonstrating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is building a strong coalition to untangle Canada’s oil pipeline gridlock.
With Alberta’s Premier, Rachel Notley, championing the Kinder Morgan project, and American president-elect Donald Trump working behind the scenes to resurrect Keystone XL, opponents are finding themselves increasingly isolated from governments on both sides of the Canada/United States border.
For more than four years, pipeline opponents could count on Clark. The feisty premier was a thorn in the side of the Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain expansion projects to carry bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast, insisting that five conditions be met before allowing their construction.
But a day after Trudeau approved Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion, Clark took the mature approach and said she was pleased that those conditions have either been met, or are close to being met.
She said there is still work to do on the $ 1.5- billion marine spill response plan recently announced by Trudeau and to ensure British Columbians get a fair share of the benefits and jobs, but work on three other conditions — regulatory approvals, land spill response and indigenous participation — has been completed.
“When I spoke to the Prime Minister yesterday, I told him that I look forward to him coming to British Columbia, to share his thinking behind the decision that he and his cabinet have made,” Clark told reporters. He needs to “talk to the people here about why he believes this project is indeed in the national interest.
“I think it’s important that he makes that argument here, in British Columbia, where so many people are passionate on either side of the project,” Clark said.
It’s a politically risky move for Clark and she will need all the help she can get. She faces an election next May that is sure to be disrupted by anti- pipeline protests. Green groups, municipal and opposition leaders and aboriginal l eaders have slammed Trudeau’s approval, which they say increases the risk of oil spills due to increased tanker traffic.
The David Suzuki Foundation, Stand. earth, SumOfUs, Greenpeace, West Coast Environmental Law, the Sierra Club and Dogwood Initiative are among the groups that have threatened an array of measures, including a provincial referendum, civil disobedience, lawsuits and construction disruption.
Clark said she hopes voters will reward her for articulating a clear and principled position on pipelines and sticking with it until all her demands were met.
Besides, she added, “Our coast is more at risk today with a totally inadequate coast guard response, than it will be a few years from now, when we have a much better coast response and perhaps more oil movement in our area.”
Other B. C. politicians stuck to their uncompromising views and even incited unlawful behaviour, despite Trudeau’s assurance that “we have made this decision because we are convinced it is safe for B.C. and it is the right one for Canada.”
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he would continue to oppose the project because it “doesn’t make sense for our economic or environmental future” and predicted opposition would get ugly.
B. C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver said “the social unrest on this issue will be something we’ve never seen in British Columbia.” Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said he hoped civil disobedience would be done peacefully. Federal Green Leader Elizabeth May said she was ready to go to jail fighting the project.
Meanwhile, they brushed off their significant suc- cesses: the rejection of the Northern Gateway project, a ban on oil tankers on the northern coast, a national climate change plan and a cap on oilsands emissions.
They also i gnored the pain they inflicted on neighbouring Alberta, where unemployment has soared and the oil-price crash was made worse by the lack of pipelines. They’re not the words and actions you’d expect from leaders, and they deserve honest re-examination because they are failing.
THE SOCIAL UNREST WILL BE SOMETHING WE’VE NEVER SEEN IN B.C.