Pipeline ruling shows era of compromise over
In this age where instant social media stokes our burning rage, you wonder whether we’ve reached a point where reasoned compromise no longer exists.
Consider the vitriol in the wake of Thursday’s court ruling that blocks construction on the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Were this another era, one might hope that Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley’s great Canadian compromise of carbon pricing in exchange for building a pipeline would have been actually seen as a viable solution. After all, even those who believe we are moving to some mystical fossil-fuel-free economy surely should accept that we will still need oil (and, thus, pipelines to move it) during the transition to get to that point.
But with Notley now withdrawing future carbon tax commitments in the wake of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s abysmal failure to deliver on Trans Mountain, what little hope there was for reasoned compromise appears to have been dashed.
Ask yourself: Is this really a victory for anyone?
Accepting the overwhelming scientific evidence that manmade activity is causing the planet to warm to a dangerous level, does anyone seriously think this stopping of Trans Mountain changes anything? Does it actually contribute to the planetwide solution ... or, frankly, even a solution to more localized environmental or social issues?
Well, evidently, some do vehemently believe this. Consider Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s declaration of victory for poor Indigenous people — ones who still can’t afford to live in his city.
Is it any wonder politicians landlocked in the flatlands like Premier Scott Moe and his predecessor Brad Wall are frustrated? They are now left with the prospect of not getting our wheat and canola to port in Robertson’s city because the fossil-fuel gobbling rail lines are clogged with oil cars poised to spill.
To top it all off, taxpayers are still on the hook for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s $4.5-billion public investment in a pipeline very similar to the ones being built by private sector companies everywhere else in the world. As it stands, we have bought a pipeline we now can’t build — a scenario actually meritorious of the hair-on-fire screaming we’ve heard from Conservatives all summer.
There again, today’s politicians do tend to anchor themselves to a position not because it’s what they truly believe, but because uncompromising extremism is what’s now expected in the echo chambers where they have chosen to live.
Take the Saskatchewan Party government that’s worked so very hard to conditioning supporters — and an entire province — to believe that any compromise made in the interests of the environment must be a disaster to the local economy.
On Wednesday, Environment Minister (yes, we still have one) Dustin Duncan unveiled phase 2 of Prairie Resilience: A Made-in- Saskatchewan Climate Change Strategy, which moves the needle very little when it comes to large-scale emitters taking responsibility for their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Instead, we again saw Duncan and his government stubbornly insist any environment standards other than ones that best suit industry are of no interest.
“Our climate change plan does not need federal approval,” Duncan said in Moose Jaw on Wednesday, adding that Ottawa was acting like “Big Brother”.
That we are again seeing an environment minister from government — elected to address the concerns of all people on all issues, including crucial questions of the environment — re-offering a nonsolution isn’t just disheartening. It speaks volumes to the obstreperous nature of today’s politics where even minuscule reasoned compromise is somehow seen as the ultimate failing.
In no small irony, the court ruling cites the following as the biggest failing in the Trans Mountain consultation process: “Missing was a genuine and sustained effort to pursue meaningful, twoway dialogue.” That we have no interest in meaningful conversation is perhaps the greatest truism.
Today’s political world — as we have seen in U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to NAFTA negotiations — has become a win-lose world of dispute settlement. Sadly, Thursday’s Trans Mountain court decision further dims hopes of returning to reasoned compromise anytime soon.