Enbridge pipeline controversial

Christy Clark remains vague on pipeline position.

by Bill Tieleman

With elections maybe a year away, you're still pretty cagey, frankly, on this Northern Gateway Pipeline.
– CBC Radio's Evan Solomon to BC Premier Christy Clark

One British Columbia political party opposes the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal that would ship Alberta oil sands bitumen through the province to Asia. The BC New Democrats say building the pipeline through northern BC to Kitimat and then sending bitumen to Asia via giant tankers down the coastline would be too environmentally risky.

"Under the Enbridge proposal, British Columbia would assume almost all the project's risk, yet would see only a fraction of the benefits," BC NDP leader Adrian Dix said in formally registering opposition with the National Energy Board's Joint Review Panel. "By any measure, such a high-risk, low-return approach simply isn't in BC's interests."

Agree or disagree, Dix is clear.

Another provincial party, however, supports the pipeline proposal. "We believe and support the notion of the Enbridge pipeline," BC Conservative leader John Cummins says. "We think it would be good for British Columbia, good for Canada to get a better price in the world market for our oil."

But our governing party — the BC Liberals — won't take any understandable position on the pipeline.

In a CBC Radio interview Saturday with host Evan Solomon on The House, Clark was all over the map on Enbridge. She says if the pipeline goes ahead BC "would get as many benefits as Nova Scotia" and that "it would create almost no jobs in British Columbia." Sounds opposed.

But then Clark tries to have it both ways.

"Evan, I'm pro-pipeline… we're enabling the construction of three pipelines from the Peace River country… Those are going to be liquefied natural gas… So we're very much pro-economic development." Sounds in favour.

But if Clark is actually "pretty cagey" on Enbridge, it hasn't stopped her from attacking federal NDP Opposition leader Tom Mulcair over his concerns about the impact of oil sands exports on Canada's economy — namely, inflating the value of the dollar and negatively affecting the manufacturing sector.

"That's just goofy," Clark told CBC Radio. "The NDP talk their gobbledygook, but really… they want less economic development."

Hmmm. "Goofy gobbledygook" seems an apt description all right, but for Clark's confused views on the Enbridge pipeline, not Mulcair's.

 

© Copyright 2012 Bill Tieleman, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca