Credibility on the line

It is fascinating to see how dysfunctional the Alberta government can be when it comes to pipelines.

On the one hand, it works hard to promote the Keystone and Northern Gateway projects; on the other hand, it rarely misses an opportunity to sabotage its own credibility, as illustrated by three recent events.

First, when 60,000 barrels of “produced water” were spilled in a wetland area near Zama City, neither the company nor the Alberta government went public with the spill until a TV station reported on it. Although produced water contains salt, heavy metals and radioactive isotopes, “there were no real public impacts,” said Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board. But according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, produced water can kill vegetation for years when it is released into marshes. Our provincial regulator thus looks intent on covering up or minimizing spills.

The government’s regard for the oil industry is shown by the second event, the appointment of a founder of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers as Alberta’s top energy regulator.

The third event is the review of pipeline safety in Alberta that the province has been keeping under wraps since December. The explanations offered by Energy Minister Ken Hughes and Premier Alison Redford for the delay in releasing the report are so unconvincing that one might conclude the review is quite critical.

As a result, this government has little credibility when it praises the safety of Alberta’s pipeline system and, ironically, thwarts its own efforts to promote new pipelines.

Gilles Gamas, Hinton