Oil pipeline is still vital for Canada
Jobs and royalty money hinge on NEB’s decision on Trans Mountain expansion
This week, Kinder Morgan Canada took an important step toward creating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in benefits for Canadians.
As we stood before the National Energy Board to present a summary of our final argument for the Trans Mountain expansion project, I took a moment to reflect on the immense amount of work that has already been dedicated to this important project. I was proud and gratified at the same time.
Since we began talking about our project, many thousands of British Columbians and other Canadians have taken the time to study our proposal and offer comments and suggestions. Now, as we move into the final weeks of an NEB hearing that formally began in December 2013, I’m confident we’ve made a compelling case to proceed with an expansion of our pipeline system to the West Coast.
We are confident that the technical details of our application and the 150 draft conditions already released by the NEB ensure safe operation of the pipeline and protection of the public and the environment.
Both at our own initiative and in response to public and regulatory suggestions, we have carefully developed measures to protect the health of communities and ecosystems within the range of our pipeline right-of-way and related facilities. We have advanced leading spill prevention and recovery regimes for both terrestrial and marine environments.
We have signed many agreements with First Nations, resulting in 29 letters of support. We respect the unique interests, values and culture of the indigenous peoples along our pipeline and marine corridors.
We share the value British Columbians place on the natural environment. We have proposals and measures to demonstrate our commitment to safety, including a $100-million investment in the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation to better manage the tanker route and to fund new equipment. This investment would cut response times in half, increase response capabilities and create new jobs.
Eighty-nine per cent of our proposed pipeline route parallels our existing system or other linear infrastructure, minimizing environmental and community impacts.
Project economics are solid, despite recent turmoil in oil markets. Getting Canada’s oil to growing markets around the world via the expansion would result in economic benefits on a national scale. It would boost the value of western Canadian oil by $73.5 billion over 20 years. This would result in a total of $28.2 billion in federal and provincial taxes and royalties, supporting vital public services and programs. We would create more than 120,000 total jobs through construction and operation of the pipeline. These numbers don’t even take into account additional upstream and downstream economic benefits.
These numbers are big, and they are impressive for Canada, but community benefits are also important. Trans Mountain has been working with local governments to sign agreements that ensure the positive impacts of the expansion can be widely shared. These investments, which are in addition to higher annual property tax payments and compensation for landowners, can fund anything the community chooses — improvements to local emergency management, enhancements to trails and parks, or local educational and training programs.
Like the Canadian transcontinental railway built in 1885, the legacy of benefits from the original 1953 Trans Mountain pipeline persist. Our pipeline carries crude from Alberta to the coast for refining and export. It also pipes 80 to 90 per cent of the refined fuel we need to power cars, buses and delivery trucks in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, making it integral to the regional economy.
The expansion project builds on that legacy. It gives a Canadian product a better connection to foreign trade markets via Port Metro Vancouver and — significantly for all Canadians — it reduces the discounting of Canadian oil due to constrained capacity within North American markets.
The completion of the original Trans Mountain pipeline in 1953 released British Columbia refineries from reliance on oil imports by tanker from California and provided Alberta’s fledgling oil industry with a customer for a product that is today Canada’s No. 1 export commodity — and will remain as such for many decades to come.
Since 1953, we’ve undertaken construction projects that doubled the capacity of the original line, confirming our experience with safe, responsible and sensitive pipeline construction. Our proposed expansion is a logical and urgent next step.
Ultimately, the Trans Mountain expansion project brings long-term benefits that balance social, environmental and economic interests. A favourable NEB recommendation and subsequent approval by federal cabinet would help transform our nation from price-taker to price-maker on international markets — resulting in more jobs for Canadians. Today, we are more confident than ever that this is the right project, at the right time, for Canada.