For a while there, we were under the impression that the prime minister was the only one allowed to speak for Alberta’s tar sands. It was all on behalf of the almighty buck. Maybe he thought finance minister Bill Morneau would contribute but that guy is weak when trying to explain anything financial.
While Trudeau did not take the opportunity in his recent cabinet shuffle to do anything about Morneau, he did bring in some help for the tar sands apologists. He has moved Edmonton MP, Amarjeet Sohi from infrastructure to natural resources. That is the department that will take responsibility for the now government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline.
As a secular Sikh, Sohi is something of a hero to the Canadian Sikh community because of his incarceration for almost two years by the Indian government for his struggle in Bihar helping poor tenant farmers. On returning to Canada, he supported himself as an Edmonton bus driver until winning a seat on city council and launching his political career.
While some claim that the appointment is to give the MP better exposure and a leg up in the election next year, he seems quite genuine in his conviction that the expanded pipeline over the Rockies is good for Alberta.
Of course, if you only judge the pipeline on its economic value to Alberta, the economy of the province would certainly benefit. Bear in mind that the extremes of environmental damage are there for all to see in Alberta. The vast areas of tailing ponds alone tell the story of the destruction of the environment that is involved in bringing the bitumen to the pipeline head.
But the real hypocrisy of those promoting the exploitation of the tar sands is the pollution of the world environment that is being encouraged by sending the bitumen off shore. Processing of bitumen into ersatz crude oil produces more than three times the carbon footprint of normal crude oil processing. And the tons of bitumen slag left in piles at the refineries is almost pure carbon. If Alberta processed all the bitumen that it has in the tar sands, the province would become unable to sustain life as we know it today.
And how proud are Canadians of all the trouble our government is taking just to ship the pollution problems to third world countries?
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Copyright 2018 © Peter Lowry
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