The year was 1881. Construction had just begun on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Our legislators had thought it worthwhile to embark on such an ambitious project. The railway would both physically and symbolically link Eastern and Western Canada, allowing for the creation of a Canadian identity and increased economic integration. As soon as a section of railway was completed, towns began springing up next to it, creating the basis for modern-day Saskatchewan and Alberta. Back then, when it was time to make a decision to unite Canada through trade, we did not flinch and, after weighting the pros and cons, we built it.

This brings me to 2016. We have similar projects, all aimed at helping boost inter-provincial and international trade. Out east, we have the aptly named Energy East project, while British Columbia has the TransMountain expansion as well as the Northern Gateway pipeline projects. It is a technology that has consistently proven itself to be both the cheapest and most reliable option, and has had over 150 years of technological advancements, making it ever safer. The data is clear; pipelines have fewer spills than any other means of transportation. If we want to avoid environmental damage, we should be building as many of them as it would be financially viable to have.

The reason why we see such strong opposition to pipeline projects is therefore not motivated by spill avoidance, but rather by a total opposition to the use of oil and gas. While such a position can be defended, it is clearly not anchored in today’s world. While alternative energies and renewables are developing, oil and gas are still our main energy sources, and it will likely stay this way for the foreseeable future. As products derived from hydrocarbons are likely to remain among our major energy sources, we should find ways to transport them as safely as possible, and as cheaply as possible, while expanding our export markets. After all, these are the key reasons that these three projects are currently proposed.

Building those pipelines is also of strategic commercial importance for Canada as a whole. As we have hundreds of thousands of jobs directly and indirectly dependent on the oil industry, and this in each and every province, it is in our best interest to reach new potential export markets so we can get more bang for our buck when exporting. Currently, our oil and gas resources are land-locked, meaning that we only have one major export market: The United States. What this means is that we are dependent on them to sell our product, giving them substantial leverage when negotiating sale prices. We are therefore forced to sell to our southern neighbours at a steep discount. While this has direct impacts on Alberta and Saskatchewan, our two major oil producing provinces, it has implications all across the country through indirect employment. After all, in order to exploit our resources, we need services such as accounting and legal advice, often coming from other provinces, as well as specialized equipment, which is not always manufactured locally. In a way, when one Canadian province suffers economically, it is Canada, as a whole, that suffers economically.

When it comes to building pipelines –the safest and cheapest way to transport oil and gas, products we currently need, and will most likely need for the foreseeable future –and given the tremendous economic impacts on all Canadian provinces, all I can say is “let it flow.”

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Renaud Brossard – Génération Trompée Spokesperson

email: rbrossard@generationscrewed.ca