It is our pleasure as British Columbians to welcome you to Vancouver this coming week. We understand you have come to our fair city to address the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade on the merits of the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline project.
We must apologize for our weather; it is a bit dark and damp at the moment. That’s Vancouver in November for you. Mind you, better to visit now than too far into the future when it is likely to be positively stormy from the effects of this annoying climate change that is going around. It would have been warmer and drier had you popped over during the summer, but then again that was a tad too hot and dry. From all the smoke that drifted over your way from B.C. this past July and August you wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that 2017 brought us the largest total area burnt in a fire season in recorded history, the largest number of total evacuees in a fire season, and the largest single fire ever recorded in British Columbia. To say nothing of the costs incurred, which will be borne by the B.C. taxpayer. That’s jolly old climate change for you.
Now we are certain that the fine people down at Canada Place will give you a rousingly warm welcome and an enthusiastic response when you tout the many economic advantages of shoving yet more Alberta crude down the KM pipeline. After all, that’s what they know best – trade, jobs and profits.
But we really feel that you could be doing so much more with your valuable time here in southern B.C. You could be talking about the issues surrounding your pipeline that really matter with the local folks. Those would be the people most responsible for the current less-than-enthusiastic attitude towards Kinder Morgan in our fair city.
- Like the Tseil-Waututh Nation who have lived directly across the Inlet from the Westridge Terminal for at least three millennia. The first things they now see in the morning and the last things at night are the loading platforms, the massive oil storage tanks and the endless stream of oil tankers coming in and going out.
- Like the people who live in Westridge and on the slope of Burnaby Mountain who any day now could face fire and holocaust when the inevitable happens.
- Like the hundreds of thousands of people who live in Vancouver (the 3rd most liveable city in the world according to The Economist) and who would have to contend with Aframax tankers crossing Burrard Inlet and English Bay as part of the daily scene, knowing that when the inevitable dilbit spills occur, not more than half can ever be recovered using the best available technologies.
However, we do realize that you are very busy these days and do not really have the time to dally in our fair city to have all the above conversations. So we would like to pose just one question to you as you dash by on your way to Canada Place. Our question is this:
You have proudly stated that Alberta’s plan on climate change is the cornerstone of Canada’s own climate initiative under the 2015 COP21 UN Climate Change agreement. You state further that Alberta’s contribution is to be based on a carbon tax, a cap on oil sands emissions, and a phase-out of coal-fired electricity in the province. We are with you one hundred percent on this. But how on earth does this square with the Kinder Morgan expansion, which will lead to the combustion of an additional 590,000 barrels of bitumen per day somewhere in Asia and the rest of world?
Yours truly,
Suzuki Elders
We await Ms. Notley’s reply with “bated breath”–assuming there is one, ha! Please keep us posted.
Well said. I am disappointed – but not surprised – by Premier Notley’s stance, and the same goes for the NDP. A buch of short-sighted opportunists.
I first became aware of global warming in 1970, when reading “Design With Nature” by the late Ian McHarg. Ever since I have been shocked at the number of things our society has done to make matters worse.