The great pipeline debate has degenerated
The last few months have illustrated how we now argue in public in Canada and the picture is not encouraging.
I’m referring to what many think of as the great pipeline debate: the pros and cons of the Kinder Morgan diluted bitumen Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from the Alberta oilsands to tidewater in Vancouver.
We have a project approved by the National Energy Board, sanctioned by the federal government, beloved of Premier Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP, and opposed by the B.C. NDP, who under Premier John Horgan, with the support of three Green Party MLAs, seek its pre-construction demise.
The demise argument is supported by several B.C. First Nations, who seek injunctive relief from unwanted trespass on unceded territories.