Premiers want to make Canada economic powerhouse except B.C. & Quebec withholding approval of pipeline

[Gaétan]

Liberals are skeptical about climate change but not about COVID vaccines, it should be exactly the opposite.

[ExFlyer]

3 hours ago, Gaétan said:

Liberals are skeptical about climate change but not about COVID vaccines, it should be exactly the opposite.

Wasn't it the liberals that kept on taxing us a carbon tax for climate change as well as bringing out COVID vaccines?

[blackbird]

18 hours ago, herbie said:

Not a bloody peep about using those Cdn resources for our own people.

Silly.   Canada only uses a fraction of the oil produced.  Most of it must be shipped to foreign markets.  That is the main purpose of having the oil and gas industry.  We have resources in the ground that the rest of the world needs.  It is a major source of revenue in Canada.  That's where Canada and provinces with the resources earn billions of dollars in tax revenue and royalties.  Without that money, what would pay for your public health care system, your old age pension, highways, forest fire fighting crews and aircraft and everything else governments provide? 

Think!

Edited 12 hours ago by blackbird

[eyeball]

13 hours ago, blackbird said:

The B.C. coast is huge and the distances are huge.  So a spill would likely be in a very small area and not affect the huge areas through the B.C. coast.

I recall how paralyzed federal and provincial authorities were in the face of oil spilled off the Oregon coast that washed up on Vancouver Island 40 years ago. You can still find oil on the beach to this day.

There was a container that washed off a ship in the North Pacific that contained some 10000 little rubber ducks. A couple years later they were seeing them in the Atlantic.

Never mind provinces, countries or oil companies...people simply shouldn't be constructing this sort of infrastructure in what is arguably one of the more dangerous and vulnerable marine environments on the planet.

13 hours ago, blackbird said:

There is no big threat from another oil pipeline.  If there is the rare spill, it can be cleaned up.  It is unlikely to affect a salmon run. 

The CCG has gone downhill ever since it was rolled into the Department of Fisheries and Oceans - the biggest threat to salmon by far.

The beef Trudeau added to coastal protection from increased tanker traffic consists of a couple of tugs anchored up on the coast which is a little underwhelming.

Offshore weather buoys are often broken down for weeks and months at a time, lighthouse reports can go down for long periods of time as well - neither inspires much confidence in the idea there's anyone guarding the coast.

But of course DFO is headquartered 1500 miles from the nearest ocean so what the fùck can they be expected to know about them?

Edited 11 hours ago by eyeball

[CdnFox]

On 6/7/2025 at 8:31 PM, herbie said:

My sister converted her house in Truro to propane because "gas was coming' and that meant just a nozzle change.
That was twelve years ago....

Yeah, great job helping fight the "newfie" intelligence stereotype   

[blackbird]

54 minutes ago, eyeball said:

You can still find oil on the beach to this day.

Maybe on some rare rock depression, which won't affect any salmon run or fish stocks.

Environmentalists simply don't understand that mankind, particularly Canada, must develop and sell the natural resources.  That is the thing that produces good paying jobs and makes Canadians prosperous.   We are not going to have good paying jobs and prosperity manufacturing fire crackers, cheap toys, and the countless things we import from China and buy in the dollar store for peanuts.  Either we get with it and sell our natural resources, forestry, mining, and energy to the world or become another banana republic.  The wealth is in the ground.  We need to get at it.

[blackbird]

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

But of course DFO is headquartered 1500 miles from the nearest ocean

They don't manage the coast guard from DFO in Ottawa.  It is managed by coast guard officials on the coasts who have the experience and knowledge.

[CdnFox]

9 minutes ago, blackbird said:

They don't manage the coast guard from DFO in Ottawa.  It is managed by coast guard officials on the coasts who have the experience and knowledge.

Yes.  Although it's going to be managed by the military now so we'll see how that changes

[eyeball]

42 minutes ago, blackbird said:

Maybe on some rare rock depression, which won't affect any salmon run or fish stocks.

My point, like a rubber ducky, has cleary drifted way over your head.

40 minutes ago, blackbird said:

They don't manage the coast guard from DFO in Ottawa.  It is managed by coast guard officials on the coasts who have the experience and knowledge.

So why can't they go fix a simple weather buoy or put out lighthouse reports in a timely manner?

You figure mariners and traffic managers and such just have the experience and knowledge to guess what's happening?

No doubt the poobahs in Ottawa do.

 

[herbie]

21 hours ago, PIK said:

B.C loves their coal.

Stupidest comment ever. Beyond stupid even.

[herbie]

18 hours ago, Aristides said:

We used to have 4 refineries on the lower mainland but now we have one. The decision to concentrate refining in Alberta and Washington was made by the oil companies, not government.

Burnaby North grad here, when almost everyone's parents were connected to the refineries. But we'd no nothing about any benefits of using our resources ourselves, would we?

Ship it out as fast as we can, dig, dig, cut, pump... a dime right now's better than a dollar tomorrow! Good of the country and all that, eh?

Nobody's offering to build and pay for any pipelines, not even Danielle. So give up with the "pipe" dreams.

[herbie]

17 hours ago, blackbird said:

Nonsense.  You have become an environmental fanatic.

There is no big threat from another oil pipeline.

Are you that f*cking stunned? Why the hell do you think there was such a fight over Enbridge? Simply because the people of BC are sheer obstructionists at heart?
That pipeline risked a spill on the source of the Fraser and ran the length of the untouched Skeena watershed! Not just with bitumen, but a counterflow line of dilutent to thin it out that was far more toxic that any crude oil. Understand there was ONE single billboard supporting the project in Smithers and that got hauled down when the city changed it's mind. And one Mickey Mouse sign on someone's farm who would'ce got zero benefit from the project. That's it, that's the extent unless you want to include all the Conservative candidates who would dodge the subject every time so as not to lose voter support.
Tack on how Christy Clark even offered to support Enbridge if 5 conditions were met, and they rejected that as well.
Well guess what, those would be the minimum to meet for any new project.

And tell us how YOU are going to benefit, or anyone else if Asia will pay more for Albera oil -  because SO WILL YOU. That's how business works which for such a loudmouth conservative, you don't even seem to know. Planning to tout more outright lies like Trumpy Boy? How drill drill drilling oil that's more expensive than importing Alberta oil is going to lower gas prices?

[blackbird]

It is a waste of time trying to discuss something with a madman.  

The Northern Gateway pipeline was opposed by radical environmentalists who oppose everything, some FNs radical hereditary chiefs (who are a tiny unelected minority of natives) who also oppose anything that crosses what they claim is their "traditional territories" and that includes the whole province of B.C.  Often the only FN opposition came from hereditary chiefs, while the majority of elected band councils were willing to negotiate a pipeline through their territory because it would create jobs and prosperity for their people.

Finally it was opposed and cancelled by Trudeau himself after he was elected in 2015.  Cancelling it was a natural outcome of electing a lunatic who put carbon taxes on everyone to fight his phony war on climate change.  It cost Canadians hundreds of billions of dollars in lost economic activity and jobs.   And people wonder why the cost of real estate is out of sight and the cost of groceries and everything continues to rise dramatically.  He killed one of the major investments that would have created real wealth for Canadians.  Instead now we ship almost all of our oil to the U.S.A. and we are can only sell a fraction of our oil to Asian markets.  Meanwhile Canada's oil and gas reserves sits in the ground untouched and other countries are busy selling their oil worldwide.

This article explains the importance of the building a pipeline to the west coast.

quote

Northern Gateway was a proposed pipeline project in Western Canada, consisting of two pipelines stretching 1,177 kilometres between Alberta and the West Coast. The $7.9 billion project included ^[1]:

• A western-flowing pipeline with a capacity of approximately 525,000 barrels of oil per day for export off the coast to buyers in Asia and the U.S.
• An eastern-flowing pipeline that would carry about 193,000 barrels per day of natural gas condensate
• The construction of a new marine terminal for exports in Kitimat, B.C.
• An estimated $300 billion in economic activity for Canadians over its lifetime ^[6]
• Support from 80% of Indigenous groups along the path of the pipeline ^[5]

Top 3 Lessons Learned from Northern Gateway’s Failure

What can Canadians learn from the Northern Gateway’s failure that will help us to get future pipeline projects built?

#1 - A Majority of Indigenous Groups Supported the Project

Canada’s federal government approved Northern Gateway in 2014 after rigorous consultation with affected Indigenous communities.

The level of government consultation with First Nations was arguably the most extensive of any natural resource project up to that point in Canadian history ^[5]. Apart from the government, Northern Gateway’s proponent also engaged in its own extensive consultation process. As a result, the pipeline won widespread support from Indigenous communities along its route, reaching 80 per cent.

But like all other pipeline projects in Canada over recent years, Northern Gateway was mired by legal challenges from opponents. The most notable court case was decided in June 2016, where the Federal Court of Appeal, in a split decision, quashed the pipeline’s approval, sending it back to federal cabinet for review.

According to the Court’s decision, a re-do of Indigenous consultation was all that was needed to move the project forward as part of an appeal and would take only four months to complete ^[3].

Despite four out of five Indigenous communities supporting Northern Gateway, the federal government decided that the pipeline was “not in the public interest” - although the facts showed otherwise.

Many Indigenous groups were devastated by the government’s decision ^[8]. More than 30 out of the 42 bands along the pipeline’s route were looking forward to sharing in its construction and long-term benefits ^[8].

#2 - The Rule of Law Should Be Respected

After a decade of planning and more than $500 million in spending on initial regulatory steps, Northern Gateway’s cancellation was a major blow to First Nations who supported the project ^[8].

According to Indigenous leaders, the pipeline’s cancellation was more of a political decision, not one “acting in the best interests of Canadians.” There was also a lack of consultation from the federal government with communities that supported the project ^[8]. Many bands considered legal action against the government for rejecting the project without proper consultation ^[8].

With approval in 2014, the federal government’s decision in 2016 should have been consistent with the pipeline’s extensive original regulatory evaluation process, showing the world Canada is a reliable jurisdiction in which to invest.

Canada needs to bring back timely regulatory processes that provide investors with some level of certainty that their projects will get approved. It is hard to imagine that any company would spend half a billion dollars on a project if dire risks were involved with the regulatory approval.

Examples like Northern Gateway and Energy East will make it difficult to bring back major capital investors to build pipelines in Canada.

#3 - Canada is Left Behind While Other Nations Benefit

Northern Gateway opponents ran an extensive campaign against the pipeline, pressuring elected leaders to cancel it outright through various means such as public protests. These groups made many polarizing claims, suggesting that the project was “not needed” ^[9] or that it would result in a “catastrophe” on land or off the coast despite Canada’s exemplary record on pipeline safety.

They couldn’t have been more wrong. Today, global oil demand continues to hit new record highs – growing by nearly 9 million bpd since the federal government rejected the pipeline in 2016.

Canada could have supplied more energy to the world via Northern Gateway but instead chose to cede oil market share to other jurisdictions abroad - missing out on immense economic benefits in the process.

Oil Demand Growth Since 2016

Since the cancellation of Northern Gateway, global oil demand has grown from 95.7 million bpd (mbpd) in 2016 to 104.46 mbpd in 2024 ^[4]. Several projections expect global oil demand to grow even further over the decades to come.

Obstructing Canadian pipelines like Northern Gateway has done nothing to stop global oil consumption growth. Instead, shutting down these projects has weakened Canada’s export-based economy over the long haul while ceding massive economic opportunities to other jurisdictions abroad.

If built, Northern Gateway would have helped insulate Canada from U.S. tariffs, making our economy stronger and less reliant on our largest trading partner.

Canada Needs a New Northern Gateway

Canada now has an opportunity to either revive or develop a project like Northern Gateway to help diversify our international export markets and strengthen our economy over the long term.

With a struggling economy and productivity crisis on our hands, it’s time for Canadians to build new pipelines and maximize the value of our natural resources. Canada’s future prosperity depends on it.

unquote

Why Was the Northern Gateway Pipeline Cancelled? - Canada Action