Trudeau puts our money where his mouth is
No matter who is to blame in Trans Mountain mess, taxpayers will now foot the bill
When I asked an Ottawa insider I know why Justin Trudeau is sinking billions of taxpayers’ dollars into the Kinder Morgan pipeline, he asked me if I ever played baseball as a kid.
“Three strikes and you’re out,” he said. “It’s the same rule in politics.”
He’s talking about Canada’s chronic case of pipeline paralysis, which has already seen two megaprojects go down the tubes.
First it was Enbridge’s proposed $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat, cancelled by the Trudeau government in 2016.
Strike One.
Then TransCanada Corp. bailed out of its $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline last year, blaming the Trudeau government’s toughened environmental rules for prohibitive cost overruns.
Strike Two.
Now, with Kinder Morgan threatening to scrap its $7.4-billion, Alberta-to-Burnaby pipeline, it’s clear Trudeau was determined not to strike out completely.
So step up to the plate, Canadian taxpayers. Avoiding Strike Three is going to cost you plenty. The government announced Tuesday it will buy the Kinder Morgan pipeline project for $4.5 billion.
But this desperate pipeline rescue effort is bound to cost you even more than that. Your $4.5 billion only buys Kinder Morgan’s existing pipeline assets. The controversial expansion of the pipeline will cost billions more.
Of course, the government doesn’t want you to fret about that. The governing Liberals insist the project is a financial winner, and they will sell the pipeline to some lucky new owners somewhere down the road.
But ask yourself this question: If this pipeline is such a great business opportunity, why is Kinder Morgan selling it?
The fact is, the Trudeau government must take much of the blame for the crisis. The failure of two major pipeline projects — and now the costly public bailout of a third — all come as Canada’s investment reputation takes a global beating.
Capital spending in Canada’s oiland-gas sector has plunged by 47 per cent in just three years. Compare that with the U.S., where spending is up 38 per cent over the same period.
The new message to the world: The only way to get a major energy project built in this country is for the government to nationalize it. But even that doesn’t guarantee this pipeline will get built.
The B.C. government is still fighting the project in court. So are First Nations. And scores of hardcore protesters are vowing to block the bulldozers, even if it means getting arrested.
No wonder Kinder Morgan wanted out. They must be wearing Texas-sized grins in the company’s Houston boardroom as Canadian taxpayers prepare to pay them off in the billions.
Back home, the blame game will get nasty.
In Ottawa, the opposition Conservatives and New Democrats will blame Trudeau for burning Canadian taxpayers to a crisp.
Trudeau and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley will blame B.C. Premier John Horgan for his pipeline obstructionism. Horgan will blame them right back, while insisting he’s protecting B.C. from an oil spill.
Environmentalists and anti-pipeline First Nations (not all of which oppose the project) will blame the greedy, foreign oil barons and their political puppets in Canada.
And as for poor, old Canadian taxpayers? You can blame whoever you want.
But you’ll still have to pay up. Big time.