Our government is planning to unload the more than 400% over budget Trans Mountain Pipeline onto the shoulders of First Nations along the route. It wants to SELL it to them. Let’s be honest with ourselves:
- We stole their land, then their children and then we abused them while we built one of the richest economies in the world based on the stolen property.
- While ignoring the theft of their land we begrudgingly gave them inferior health care, education, water supplies and social services.
- We are driving pipelines through the minuscule land they still own, often without their permission.
- Reputable analysis shows that this pipeline is of such dubious viability that even if it were gifted to them it is likely to be a long term liability.
- Have we no sense of justice, fairness, reality? Are we as a nation that heartless and mean spirited?
And that does not even touch on the enormous environmental impact of this pipeline on their children, grandchildren or our own. This pipeline’s only real purpose is to make already filthy rich oil companies much richer by ramping up oil production from one of the dirtiest sources of oil in the world. Trans Mountain will deliver 890,000 barrels/day to Vancouver, up from 300,000 b/d. That oil will be burned somewhere. The daily output of C02 from use of Trans Mountain oil output per day will be just under 380 million Kg. The annual output of C02 form burning Trans Mountain oil will be 133.5 billion Kg of C02.
Having stolen everything we could from First Nations people, we are now prepared to ensure that climate change will render their futures, as well as our own, untenable. The cost of Trans Mountain could have built 8,500 or more wind turbines. It could have constructed more than 1.3 million 7.5Kw solar systems to power 1.3 million homes across the country. This would have produced more, well – paying jobs than the pipeline, and cut energy costs for millions of households.
Has everyone lost their senses?
Global Co-operation 
Cutting to the heart of the matter, as always, Tom! I’m curious, do you think that perhaps the answer to your question moreso lies in the apathy of citizens, their cynicism, the incredible challenge of balancing earning enough money to survive and thrive balanced with sustaining engaged grassroots political campaigns that will oust leaders who behave in this way? Perhaps all 3 in equal measure? Other barriers I’m not considering? I think we would both agree that a consistently engaged, and engaging, citizenry can and must change the governmental apparatus that approves of these types of decisions. So what’s standing in the way of that?
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Yes to your comments. At the heart of it all are capitalist economies which function very well to make the very rich richer while increasingly failing to deliver the basics of life – housing, quality food, affordable food, health care, education, etc., to 80% of our people. People are angry, afraid and often despairing. Why vote if it makes no difference? Vote for someone like Trump or Poilievre who spew the anger they feel. The answer is building a better economy, one owned by workers, consumers, community groups whose purpose is to meet human need rather than feed greed.
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