By Heather Douglas
Cloaked in their green duplicity, the Government of Quebec, the mayors around Montreal, and the federal Quebec politicians rejoiced when TransCanada (TSX:TRP) cancelled the Energy East Pipeline. Yet in 2014 the province authorized the building and operation of Quebec’s largest carbon dioxide polluter, a cement plant along the Gaspe Peninsula, which potentially emits more CO2 than the entire pipeline would have. Perhaps severe fines should be imposed?
To add insult to injury, these same government officials refuse to protect the world’s endangered North Atlantic right whales, which are routinely and cruelly killed by oil tankers, freighters, and cruise ships travelling along the St. Lawrence Seaway. Perhaps a shipping moratorium is in order?
Quebec’s Largest Polluter
The oilpatch is a great supporter of the cement industry. It buys cement, mixes it, and uses tonnes of the calcium-rich limestone for its well pads, compressors, gas processing plants, and refineries. The downstream marketers need the clay and sand to build service stations so consumers can fill their vehicles with gasoline and diesel. The fossil fuel sector encases a lot of facilities in cement.
Yet the oilpatch is disgusted with the political process one cement plant in Quebec was aided and abetted in, that bent all sorts of environmental regulations, while those same politicians self-righteously proclaimed the Energy East pipeline project was “environmentally damaging” to their pristine province.
In 2014 a new $1.0 billion greenfield cement plant was approved and built at Chandler, along the Gaspe Peninsula, about 40 km northeast of Port-Daniel. It was designed to produce just more than one million tonnes of cement annually, most of which was destined to travel on container ships to the American eastern seaboard. The plant was sanctioned without either public hearings or an environmental review. To add insult to injury, the provincial government was happy to write a $250.0 million cheque as a loan and another $100.0 million cheque to become a bona fide shareholder. That same government encouraged La Caisse de depot, the province’s public pension fund, to invest another $100.0 million. Cost overruns cost the provincial treasury an extra $450.0 million.
Why? Astute political observers note these political machinations amounting to $900.0 million, were to hold a key riding and stay on the good side of Laurent Beaudoin, the heir apparent of the Bombardier family. The Port Daniel-Gascons cement plant emits between 1.8 and 2.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) yearly, and is Quebec’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Compare that to the emissions along the entire 4,500 kilometre Energy East Pipeline Project, which were estimated at 0.7 and 4.3 million tonnes annually (according to TransCanada Pipeline’s application), depending on volumes shipped.
The cement plant also surpasses the emissions from the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP). March 9, 2017 Canadian Natural Resources (TSX:CNQ) purchased a 70 per cent stake in AOSP, consisting of the Albian Mines, at Muskeg River and Jackpine, with approximately 196,000 barrels/day of mined bitumen, the Scotford Upgrader, and the Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project. Shell Canada (TSX:SHC), the previous operator, reported last year it had captured and safely stored 1.0 million tonnes of CO2 underground.
TransCanada spent $1.0 billion on its National Energy Board (NEB) application. There’s no public record how much Shell spent on its AOSP filing. The folks at Port Daniel-Gascons did not have to spend a single penny on an environmental assessment.
It’s interesting to note that other Quebec cement producers were livid the Port-Daniel plant was automatically green-lighted by the province. Labargel-Holcim sued the province to try and force the government to hold “public hearings and make the plant owners conduct a proper environmental assessment.” They lost.
Perhaps government officials do better when it comes to protecting threatened and precious creatures living in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Right Whales Dead from “Blunt Force Trauma”
The headlines told the tragic news. About a dozen endangered North Atlantic right whales had died in the Gulf of St. Lawrence since June. Veterinarians who autopsied the carcasses said the majority died from being hit by shipping vessels while five were entangled in fishing gear. The rest were too decomposed to write accurate death certificates.
According to the activist group Defenders of Wildlife, these are among the rarest of all marine mammal species. “Today, only around 450 North Atlantic right whales remain.” The federal government’s ministries of transport and fisheries issued a “temporary slow-down order” (August 11, 2017) to reduce speeds citing scientists claiming 2017 was the “deadliest year for the marine mammals since the 1980s.”
The order proclaims that “vessels 20 metres or longer must slow to a maximum of 10 knots in the western portion of the Gulf, which stretches from Quebec to north of Prince Edward Island.” Canada’s gallant Coast Guard was authorized by Transport Canada to “board and fine ships violating the order up to $25,000.”
Why stop there? Enbridge’s (TSX:ENB) Northern Gateway Pipeline was shelved because of Prime Minister Trudeau’s ban on all oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s north coast. “A legislated oil tanker ban [would] send a strong message of positive change to all British Columbians, while rebuilding the trust that has been lost over almost a decade in the battle over Northern Gateway.”
To quote ForestEthics, “Without tankers, crude oil has no place to go. That means no pipelines, no oil trains moving oil to Canada’s west coast. “
What about a similar ban on Canada’s eastcoast? The oilpatch would love to see a debate about prohibiting tanker traffic bringing crude oil from places which don’t meet or exceed NEB’s stringent emissions regulations. Why should Nigerians be exempt? How about Saudi Arabia and its human rights violations? Their tankers could have killed those precious dozen North Atlantic right whales.
Shipping and navigation on coastal marine waters comes under federal jurisdiction and it was part of the federal Liberal party’s election platform. So why not extend it to the St. Lawrence? Does it have a world-leading marine spill response system in place? What about an endangered marine mammal rescue response?
Quebec politicians, clothed in green self-righteousness and wanting to keep Alberta’s bitumen from possibly ever contaminating their pristine soil, should man-up and place a similar moratorium on all shipping in the St. Lawrence Seaway — until the whales are off the endangered list. And, while they’re at it, also impose pollution controls on cement factories in the Gaspe to protect the precious lungs of the region’s children. Isn’t it a government mantra that the polluters must pay?
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