QUEBEC CAN DO MORE
It’s encouraging that Quebec has reached out to Alberta after the $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline project was shelved.
Cabinet minister Jean-Marc Fournier says he understands Albertans’ disappointment over TransCanada Corp.’s decision to cancel the project, but he takes issue with the belief that Quebec is to blame for the turn of events.
“To present one society as a bloc opposed to the other is nothing more than taking a deliberate shortcut in order to divide and polarize,” said Fournier, minister for Canadian relations.
TransCanada cited “changed circumstances” when it announced its decision earlier this month to cancel a project that would have transported oilsands crude to New Brunswick refineries. Among the factors was the National Energy Board’s decision to include greenhouse gas emissions in its review — something Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard had once insisted upon, but a condition he can’t really be blamed for.
Fournier observed that many people have labelled TransCanada’s declaration a business decision, pointing to the lower price of oil and the approval of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and other projects.
It may be true that the failure of Energy
East doesn’t rest with Quebecers — including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — but they have obstructed pipeline proposals that are not only in the West’s and also in the nation’s best interest. Couillard insisted Energy East presented significant risk to the province’s freshwater resources months after Quebec declared in 2016 that it would seek an injunction to ensure TransCanada complies with the province’s environmental laws.
“We will not compromise our people’s security and safety as far as water is concerned,” he said.
The mayor of Quebec’s largest city, Denis Coderre, tweeted he was “proud” when it was announced the pipeline application had been withdrawn, adding he and other Montreal-area mayors played a key role in its mothballing.
“We are against it because it still represents significant environmental threats and too few economic benefits for greater Montreal,” said Coderre. This from a man who oversaw the deliberate dumping of billions of litres of untreated sewage into the province’s waterways.
We’ll take Fournier at his word that he wants to reconcile with Alberta. We also hope that instead of choosing foreign oil over Canadian oil, his province will be a voice for national sovereignty when it comes to energy supplies.
Action speaks louder than words. Fournier has lots of words, and plenty of imported oil to fuel his province’s needs.