I may have spoken too soon.
A deeply disturbing article by Althia Raj suggests public money may ultimately be involved.
Federal Liberals, who hoped the government’s pipeline pact with Alberta was a public relations effort that would never see the light of day, should brace for its approval — including, possibly, with public money.
Three Liberals privately suggested to the Star that Prime Minister Mark Carney may put federal money behind a new pipeline to the west coast — despite the memorandum of understanding signed with the province lays only a path for the “construction of one or more private sector constructed and financed pipelines.”
This revelation must come as a shock to many Liberal MPs, who are on record as saying that the MOU signed with Alberta meant little, given the reluctance of private oil to put up the kind of money needed to build such a conduit.
Last fall, when the prime minister was asked in Calgary if he was prepared to do more to de-risk the project to attract private capital, Carney said he was already “de-risking the project in several ways” through regulatory clarity and setting aside “billions” for financing Indigenous People’s equity ownership in projects.
But sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say Carney wants to see the pipeline built, and is realizing it may not happen without more public money behind it.
Environmental waffling on matters related to oil presage Carney's capitulation on the actual pipeline.
[E]arlier this month, Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin referred to the government’s rising industrial carbon price as the “backbone” of the government’s climate plan, key to reducing Canada’s emissions, and providing industry the “right signals to move our economy in that direction.”
But on a briefing call with journalists hours before the MOU announcement, Alberta’s representative suggested $130 was a ceiling not a floor. While it’s higher than the province’s current headline price of $95 a tonne, and much higher than where credits effectively trade, between $20 and $40 a tonne, it’s not high enough to make projects, such as the $16.5-billion Pathways Alliance carbon capture and storage network viable — without even more public funding. (So far, the project has received tax credits worth 62 per cent of its construction costs, and the oil companies behind the massive project — a soft prerequisite for the pipeline — want more public funding.)
Additionally, when Danielle Smith introduced regulations making the credits easier to obtain, Carney's government said not a word.
If you do any research on carbon capture technology, you will realize it is more fable than reality. In reality it is not viable either on the scale necessary to make a difference or the amount of energy required to operate it, thus negating the amount of carbon captured.
Canadians have grown used to being stabbed in the back by our former 'friends', the United States. Few, I suspect, are prepared for the knife being wielded by our own government.
