Fight to Stop Pipelines Launched by Predictable Cabinet Decision Says Hyer
Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer
Predictable cabinet decision on Enbridge project launches the fight to stop pipelines, tankers on the BC Coast
OTTAWA, ON – Today’s unsurprising federal Cabinet decision to approve Enbridge’s pipeline proposal means that the fight to stop this risky project is just beginning.
Today Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford announced the Government’s decision that a new pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast should be built, in accordance with the National Energy Board’s December ruling that the controversial project would be “in Canadians’ best interests.”
“From the opening week of NEB review of the proposed risky pipeline and tanker scheme to ship out raw bitumen, and Joe Oliver’s open letter blasting anyone with the temerity to oppose the project, today’s Cabinet decision had been a foregone conclusion,” said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and MP for Saanich–Gulf Islands. “We will continue to fight this ill-advised, reckless and dangerous scheme and we will stop it from ever being built.”
Despite the project’s federal approval, there remain significant hurdles that must be cleared before construction can begin, including numerous legal challenges from the BC and Alberta First Nations along the proposed route.
“Canadians don’t want a pipeline to ship our oil off to China, when Eastern Canada depends on expensive imported oil from Venezuela and the Middle East,” said Green Deputy Leader Bruce Hyer, MP for Thunder Bay–Superior North. “This project would bring enormous environmental risks while doing nothing to create Canadian jobs, or to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
If completed, this Enbridge pipeline would transport dilbit, a toxic mixture of oil sands bitumen and chemical diluent, for 1170 kilometers from northern Alberta to the port of Kitimat. Once in Kitimat, the dilbit would be loaded onto super tankers and shipped through the 260-km Hecate Strait, a narrow channel crowded with islands and prone to storms and thick fog. The cleanup costs for a single spill have been estimated at over $9 billion.
