B.C. will reap benefits from pipeline

Alberta may get the vast majority of the bounty from an expected jump in oilsands crude sales, but B.C. will pocket most of the more modest benefits from the construction and operation of West Coast-bound pipelines, according to a study released Thursday.

The Calgary-based Canadian Energy Research Institute concluded the construction and operation of Enbridge’s proposed $6 billion Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat would add $8.9 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product over 25 years, of which $4.7 billion would go to B.C., $2.9 billion to Alberta and $608 million to Ontario.

Kinder Morgan’s $4.1-billion proposal to twin its existing pipeline to Burnaby, meanwhile, would add $8 billion to Canada’s wealth over a quarter-century, the study found. B.C. would get $4.4 billion of that amount, while Alberta would take $2.4 billion and Ontario $523 million.

“As with the (Kinder Morgan project), the Northern Gateway pipeline will impact British Columbia more than any other province over the next 25 years,” concludes the report.

CERI’s study mirrors Enbridge’s own conclusion that B.C. — given that most of the work takes place in that province — would get the majority of the benefits from the actual construction and operation of the pipeline,

B.C. Premier Christy Clark said that those benefits over a 25-year period — in a national economy with a current real GDP of close to $1.4 trillion a year — aren’t enough to offset the environmental risks facing the province if there’s a major spill on land or at sea. She has told the federal and Alberta governments they must come up with a way to transfer more of the oil wealth to B.C. before her province will support the projects, which fall under federal jurisdiction.

Neither Prime Minister Stephen Harper nor Alberta Premier Alison Redford have agreed to take part in negotiations requested by Clark.

The study said Northern Gateway would deliver B.C. 70,000 person-years of employment, the vast majority during the proposed construction phase spread over 20142017 construction phase, while Alberta would get 37,000.

The Kinder Morgan project, scheduled to be constructed in a similar mid-decade period, would generate 66,000 person-years for B.C. and 30,000 for Alberta,

The CERI report is the second in recent weeks to look into the economic payoff from the construction of major pipelines to help Alberta’s booming oilsands sector find new buyers in Asia.

The previous report in late July showed that Alberta got by far the largest share of the massively higher wealth generated from the expansion of the oilsands industry facilitated by new pipelines.

CERI, founded in 1975, is funded by industry and the federal and provincial governments