If you know anything about the climate-change peril within which the world lives, you will see this announcement by Justin Trudeau and his cronies as nothing less than a betrayal of the entire world.
The federal Liberal government has agreed to buy the troubled Trans Mountain expansion project from Kinder Morgan to ensure the controversial expansion of an Alberta-to-B.C. crude oil pipeline gets built.Even the right-wing is appalled by this obscene parody of government responsibility:
The price tag is less than the company’s estimated $7.4-billion projected cost but taxpayers will be on the hook for $4.5 billion according to details released by Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr at a news conference Tuesday.
Ottawa will take over the expansion and the existing pipeline and assets in a deal that will see Kinder Morgan immediately begin construction. But Ottawa will immediately seek new buyers in the private sector and has promised to also extend insurance to them for any politically-motivated delays.
The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation condemned the move, saying it would saddle taxpayers with costs that should be borne by the private sector.Green Party Leader Elizabeth May sees it for what it is:
“This decision represents both a colossal failure of the Trudeau government to enforce the law of the land, and a massive, unnecessary financial burden on Canadian taxpayers,” the federation said in a statement.
“Kinder Morgan laughing all the way to the bank. KM gets $4.5 billion and walks away. Canada to raise money to build $7.4 billion project,” May said on Twitter.Even the most ardent Liberal supporter must be starting to see the path this government is leading us down. It is one that culminates in greater debt and, more worrisome still, greater greenhouse gas emissions and despoliation of the B.C coast.
Hardly a legacy these renegades can ultimately be proud of.
UPDATE: If you watch even the first two minutes of Elizabeth May's response to the Trudeau betrayal, I think you will share my outrage.
I'm awaiting the analysis showing how much profit Kinder Morgan pocketed on this deal. Nobody else, especially no entity in the oil/bitumen/pipeline industry wanted to touch this project. Only the feds with no background in this challenging construction went for it.
ReplyDeleteThis project is still tied up in the courts by the BC government, First Nations and others. Yet Morneau says the construction will go ahead within the month. That suggests Ottawa intends to force through some Stalinesque legislation to steamroller every opponent and their court challenges. The harder they push people around the more likely this is going to get violent and the more people who will wind up in jails. Will CSIS become Trudeau's Stasi? It's already spying on dissenters, taking notes and more.
The country is taking a very ugly turn under Trudeau's 'leadership,' Mound. If people think it is normal for provinces to be turning against each other, they are being very narrow in their thinking.
DeleteCanada can't afford a second term for this government.
Socialize the losses. That's Neo-Liberalism's prime directive.
ReplyDeleteAnd they have found the perfect enablers in Trudeau and Morneau, Owen.
DeleteJust what I always wanted, my own little piece of leaky 70 year old pipeline, to own, love and cherish as a taxpayer, and maybe even maintain if anyone remembers that chore. Then, hallelujah! a new line will be born beside the old to brace Canada for the future of shipping Alberta shit to world markets champing at the bit for a barrel of genyooine Alberta dilbit, now with removed dil for tanker efficiency. It's shovel-ready folks! And the dil can be sent back to dilute the next load being pumped out of Alberta.
ReplyDeleteI guess Morneau wanted to start a civil war in BC and came up with a scheme to ensure it. There are not enough arsey-emm-pees to invade and take over Vancouver, so if the troops turn out it's a guaranteed mess. That's if First Nations don't stop the expansion by refusing to cede transport rights over unceded land in the first place.
Still, no extraneous NAFTA ISDS challenges where money is handed over for nothing but the perceived future investment losses of foreigners. And presumably BC will still get gasoline through the old pipeline, negating Notley's childish vindictiveness.
Other than that, it all seems like a desperate move by the monied classes. With no guaranteed results, no matter what strange ideas float around in Morneau's deeply neoliberal brain.
BM
Your last paragraph sums up up the essential problem of the Trudeau government, BM. Neoliberalism run amok. I only hope more people wake up to this sad fact.
Delete