‘Ping pong’ game by oil critics must end

Albertans have every right to get upset and angry at the announcement of the $40 billion LNG Canada project scheduled to be built in Kitimat, B.C. It’s not that Albertans are envious of B.C. getting the project, but Albertans are livid at the hypocritical way they have been treated.

Beaming and smiling broadly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined B.C. Premier John Horgan for the announcement, describing it repeatedly as “the single largest private sector investment project in Canadian history.”

“It is a vote of confidence in a country that recognizes the need to develop our energy in way that takes the environment into account, and that works in meaningful partnership with Indigenous communities.”

The incident clearly shows double standards and hypocrisy applied to energy projects in Canada. While there was jubilation in B.C., there has been disappointment and despondency in Alberta at the number of hurdles placed on the Trans Mountain pipeline approval. I wonder when will Alberta Premier Rachel Notley get her turn to smile for an op-ed picture with the prime minister!

Horgan, who has been preaching to and educating Albertans about the dangers and environmental hazards that will ensue if TM pipeline is approved, has quickly forgotten that LNG is equally prone to environmental disasters and accidental catastrophes. There is no 100-per-cent safety guarantee for either LNG or TM projects. All the project operators can do is place safety machinery and devices to deal with in case of any eventualities.

Most of the blame for the delay in approval of TM pipeline should squarely be placed on Trudeau and his Liberals, who should get a Noble Prize for inactivity on the most revenue-generating project in Canada. Trudeau and his ministers purposely delayed deciding on TM until it was too late to rescue it. Whenever Trudeau was questioned about the pipeline, he kept on saying that “the pipeline will be built” without any concrete steps taken by the snail-pace moving Liberals.

The issue has already divided the country, fracturing our federal system of government. Canada needs one voice on this issue which will bring benefits and prosperity not only to Alberta but also to the whole country. It is one Canadian concern over which there should be unanimity.

A time has come for Canada’s two cancelled pipeline projects, Energy East and Enbridge Northern Gateway, to be revived. Energy East would have carried about 1.1 million barrels of oil a day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to eastern Canadian refineries and a marine terminal in New Brunswick, while the eastbound pipeline would have imported natural gas and the westbound pipeline would have exported diluted bitumen from the Athabasca oil sand to a marine terminal in Kitimat for transportation to Asian markets.

Another project that should be revived is the Keystone Pipeline from Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas. The U.S. government has already approved it and it is up to Canada’s provincial and federal governments to unite to pursue the matter.

It’s a shame that an oil-rich country like Canada, which has safer methods of transport, has to rely on countries like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Algeria to meet its local demands. Oil and energy experts are predicting that Canada is now open for business and that foreign investment will finally flow back into Canada’s energy sector after years of despondency. Let’s hope they are right. Mansoor Ladha is a Calgary-based journalist, travel writer and author of Memoirs of a Muhindi: Fleeing East Africa for the West and Portrait in Pluralism: Aga Khan’s Shia Ismaili Muslims.

I wonder when will Alberta Premier Rachel Notley get her turn to smile for an oped picture with the prime minister!