Dan Bjarnason

If we as a country have decided the exploitation of natural resources are where our economic future lies – and there are a whole host of reasons why this is a poor economic strategy that leaves us at the bottom of the economic chain – then at very least, we should be uprgading those resources into diesel, jet fuel, etc. in Canada, instead of sending our long-term refining positions to other countries in Asia and the U.S. (as will happen if the Keystone pipeline ever gets built).

As AFL president Gil McGowan says, with the Northern Gateway pipeline, “other nations will take the jobs and profits associated with adding value to our resources, and we’ll be left with pollution and inflation”.

Moreover, a major report recently completed by Robyn Allan – an economist and prominent businesswoman once named one of Canada’s top 200 CEOs – found the Northern Gateway pipeline will actually hurt Canada’s economy!

According to her report, “the higher prices for Canadian oil that would be gained by access to world markets would have an inflationary price shock which will have a negative and prolonged impact on the Canadian economy by reducing output, employment, labour income and government revenues. Higher oil prices mean a decrease in family purchasing power, higher prices for industries who use oil as an input into their production process, higher rates of unemployment in non-oil industry related sectors, a decline in real GDP, a decline in government revenues, an increase in inflation, an increase in interest rates and further appreciation of the Canadian dollar”.

Unfortunately, acording to her, “industry predictions of $270 billion in economic benefits from Gateway don’t consider the depressing effects of increased oil prices”.

So clearly there is more to the opposition to the pipeline than just the concerns of environmentalists and celebrities. And quite frankly, even from an economic perspective, this pipeline does not seem to be a good deal for Albertans, British Columbians, or Canadians.

Opening the path to Asia for our bitumen will raise the price of fuels for Canadians and does nothing to help with our own dependence on foreign oil.

More importantly, we have missed a couple of decades debating climate change and talking about doing something about it. We are now faced with an urgent need to make major changes to how we do things.

The expansion of the tar sands is a move in the wrong direction. Investing in major fossil fuel infrastructure projects robs investment from the alternatives we need. Our continued dependence on fossil fuels for our quality of life robs future generations of theirs. We must do better so that they can too.

Did you look up the historic sea level rise in Vancouver? http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrend…

If the current trend continues Vancouver will have a massive 0.09 ft increase in 100 years, barely enough to get your feet wet.

WILLIAM H. GATHERCOLE AND NORAH G
 
NORAHG is the National Organization Responding Against HUJE that seek to harm the Green space industry.
  http://pesticidetruths.com/

But we must veer away from the dependency on the tarsands. Joined at the hip we may be – and for sure we cannot crudely amputate. All habits, though, including this fossil-fueled one, can be treated. The true cost of not addressing this is beyond the economic benefits the accursed tarsands have brought. Downstream communities – “Inuit” according to Natural Resources Min. Joe Oliver – deserve better than to be exposed to non-monitored tarsands pollution of the land and water.

The lies, and utter lack of accountability and responsibility, now so emblematic of Alberta and the Feds, should not be tolerated. This environmental racism confirms precisely who are the “enemies of the people”!