No pipeline means no energy independence for Canada

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If we’re incapable as a nation of building one new pipeline to transport bitumen from Alberta to tide water in B.C., and from there to Asian markets via oil tankers, then we’re not serious about energy independence.

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It means we will always be subservient to the U.S. on energy, perpetually forced to sell almost all of our oil to the Americans at a discount because they are our only customer.

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No serious country would do that.

Even former prime minister Justin Trudeau, who advocated phasing out the oilsands, acknowledged that, “No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil and just leave it in the ground. The resource will be developed. Our job is to ensure this is done responsibly, safely and sustainably.”

Proposal consistent with Trudeau-era policies

For all of the pearl-clutching by the usual anti-oil suspects in the wake of the recent memorandum of understanding signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith laying the ground work for an Alberta-to-B.C. pipeline, the proposal is consistent with what Trudeau advocated at the start of his decade in power.

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As he put it in 2016: “We want the low-carbon economy that continues to provide good jobs and great opportunities for all Canadians. To get there, we need to make smart, strategic investments in clean growth and new infrastructure, but we must also continue to generate wealth from our abundant natural resources to fund this transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Despite all the hysteria the MOU has attracted from the anti-oil lobby, it is not a guarantee an oil pipeline will be built.

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Pipeline not guaranteed, despite MOU

It simply lays out the process for how this could happen, if private sector investors are interested and if compromises can be reached with the B.C. government and Indigenous leaders who oppose it.

If this effort fails or if the timelines to approve it become impractical, there won’t be a new pipeline.

But in that case, it will mean that our governments are incapable of working together to make economic decisions that are in the best interests of the Canadian economy and in the best interests of all Canadians.

It will mean that, yet again, we will be cutting our own economic throats.

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