By Scott Jeffrey
Forget all the common-sense reasons for starting and completing the TransMountain Expansion Project (TMEP). Forget that construction of the pipeline will start on September 17, 2017; that it will cost $7.4 billion to complete over two years; that 89% of the pipeline will be built on existing rights of way or along already existing infrastructure; that revenue to Alberta and British Columbia will total about $25 billion, including construction and the first 20 years of tolls; that it makes economic sense to build a pipeline to tidewater, to diversify our customer base; that construction of the pipeline expansion will take 2800 tanker trucks or almost 900 railcars per day out of circulation; that taking those alternative forms of petroleum transport off the books makes life infinitely safer for both people and the natural environment.
As I said, let’s forget about all that, and realize that just as it was political interference that has led to the delay of TMEP, so it will be politics that get it built.
In their unseemly haste to cobble together a shaky coalition of NDP and Green Party seats following the May election in B.C., and thus unseat the Liberals, NDP leader John Horgan and Green Party leader Andrew Weaver paid lip service to one of their campaign promises. That promise was to scrap the TMEP, and they will not keep that promise.
The reason they will not keep their promise is simple- they need the money. Some of their other promises will only be partially fulfilled, and the reason once again is based on money. How can you relieve the cost of living burdening the people of B.C., or improve essential services, or create jobs, if you don’t have the money to make those dreams come true?
Justin Trudeau gave the green light to the TMEP last November, and he was supported in this announcement by 17 Liberal MPs in B.C. There are currently 14 NDP MPs in B.C. Add to this federal mix 10 Conservative MPs, and you have a substantial majority of representatives backing this common-sense project.
Provincially, the Liberals actually have more seats than the NDP, 42-41, but the above-mentioned coalition totals 44 seats, for a majority and an alliance that could go south at any time.
Horgan and Weaver will stay relatively quiet on the issue of the pipeline, and when forced to speak of it by outraged supporters, they will simply say that their hands are tied, that is a federal matter, and that all they can do is make sure the pipeline is as safe as is humanly possible, which it already is.
When federal Liberals and the new B.C. government meet, they will talk about the things about which they agree. Key among these is the current wildfire crisis sweeping the province. It looks like B.C. will be in for its costliest year ever, in terms of hectares destroyed and the cost to fight the fires. In 2009, fighting fires cost the province almost $400 million, and it is estimated that this year will be significantly costlier. Ottawa will help with that cost, and that makes them allies.
As happens every time a new government is elected, the current administration will bemoan the shoddy leadership of the former government, and say that their hands are tied, that they cannot undo what has been cast in stone by the baddies who used to run the province. That may be more or less true, but the fact remains that most decisions made by a former leader would have been made by the current one. Fiscal reality, and a certain amount of common sense, would have led any leader to the same conclusions.
The current government will now comb the press releases of Kinder Morgan Canada, looking for all the good reasons the pipeline should be built, becoming allies in what they so stridently opposed when they sat in opposition.
You can complain all you want when you are in opposition. However, when you suddenly are handed the mantle of power, you have to start making some common-sense decisions. Utopian dreams and harsh fiscal reality seldom make good bedfellows.
And so, I repeat, the politics that held up the TMEP will now ensure that it gets built. The provinces and the country will be the better for it, and the strident opponents of the project will quietly go back to burning natural gas in their homes, driving internal combustion engines, and using petroleum products to enhance the quality of their lives.
Political reality, the prerogative of a democratically elected government, will once more have won the day.
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