FEAR AND LOATHING IN VANCOUVER.
The city of Vancouver is facing historic ruin. The scope seems unfathomable, except that the city’s mayor, Gregor Robertson, has indeed fathomed it, and his prophecies are terrifying. Immediately after the National Energy Board’s recommendation last week that the federal government approve the proposed expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline (with 157 conditions), Robertson was on the horn with media organizations from coast to coast to urgently warn Canadians of the suffering he foresees.
Someday, an oil tanker picking up oil delivered through that pipeline will topple its load off of Vancouver’s shoreline, he’s sure. While the NEB determined that was highly unlikely, he nevertheless has visions of “seals and whales swimming through oil in our harbour,” he told CBC. The city, known for its “clean and green brand” would, he predicted, become famous instead as “Oil- Spill City.” Totally shunned by global tourists, the economic death spiral would begin. Cautioned Robertson: “400,000 jobs are at risk.”
That’s an upsetting figure. It’s also a spectacular exaggeration, one that Robertson didn’t explain and the CBC interviewer didn’t challenge. The entire region of Metro Vancouver — the city and surrounding neighbours — has 1.2 million jobs total. Does Robertson really believe that a serious oil spill could sabotage the jobs of one- third of the region’s workforce? If Vancouver’s economy is that reliant on fair- weather tourists, the government really should be racing to diversify its economy, not trying to block industrial projects.
Even if you added up all the workers in the whole province in the “information, culture and recreation” industry and the “accommodation and food service” industry, and assumed every one of them — from Fernie’s lift operators and Vernon’s vintners to Prince George’s burger flippers — somehow relied on Vancouver’s “clean and green” brand for their livelihood, you’re still only talking about 290,000 workers. Sure, you could broaden your assumption to include as many indirectly affected workers as possible. Robertson’s economic estimations plainly have. He’s willing to offer absurdly inflated statistics in his determination to stand in the way of Canada’s resource industry.
Robertson spent much of last week deriding the NEB’s Trans Mountain hearing as a “sham.” The board’s consultations with affected indigenous groups was not done “appropriately,” he insisted. The 1,600 participants who made arguments for and against the pipeline expansion still left “many voices … shut out,” he added. But even Robertson admits that the only review he would accept is one telling Kinder Morgan to buzz off. “There’s nothing the company could do to make this acceptable to the West Coast,” he said.
Of course, Robertson doesn’t speak for the entire West Coast — and a poll in March by Insights West showed the number of British Columbians outright opposed to the Trans Mountain expansion was still in the minority, at 45 per cent. One would hope Robertson at least represents the opinions of the city of Vancouver ( comprising just 16 per cent of the province). But even there, enthusiasm for Robertson’s green zeal has waned since he took office in 2008, with the election two years ago his narrowest win yet.
Still, one constituency that remains fully behind Robertson is the crusading Tides Foundation, the powerful and deep- pocketed American environmentalist group that’s set its sights on shutting down Alberta’s oilsands industry. Robertson’s move from the juice business into politics was heavily financed by Tides’ network of eco- activists. Nearly a quarter of the money raised by his Vision Vancouver party during his first race eight years ago was donated by people and organizations connected to Robertson’s green mentor, Joel Solomon, a longtime driving force with Tides. Many were from Solomon’s American network, hoping to make Vancouver into an “incubator” for their green agenda that could be spread to other cities, as one U. S. millionaire donor later explained to the Vancouver Sun.
Solomon himself has spoken of his and his comrades’ 500- year plan to heal the planet from all “that had gone wrong” in the half- millennium since Europeans began colonizing the New World. Tides has been at the forefront of that deconstruction, working not just to stop the oilsands, but coal, logging, and fish farms, among many other things, by funding campaigns by groups including the Sierra Club, Forest Ethics and the Indigenous Environmental Network. Robertson himself has held positions at several different organizations funded by Tides.
A primary focus for Tides has been its “Tar Sands Campaign.” And with the group having enjoyed so much success in recent years in hemming in Alberta’s oilsands ambitions, it’s easy to see how Robertson and his fellow eco- justice warriors would see a Trans Mountain expansion as a major setback. The prospect of all those extra tankers sailing past Vancouver, of all places, must horrify them to no end.
But then, Vancouver’s realities have routinely disappointed Robertson and his fellow Tides- friendly travellers’ utopian dreams. In the last municipal election, Robertson issued an apology to outraged voters for having “pushed too far” his enthusiasm for urban densification. Residents fumed as he ripped up roads for bike lanes — even as the number of cars on Vancouver’s roads has grown faster than its population. Meanwhile, Metro Vancouver is on track to become North America’s biggest coal export hub, with the regional port authority recently approving the second of two new terminal projects.
Robertson has been seething about what that coal expansion is doing to Vancouver’s image, too. But if it’s any consolation, that “green and clean” brand seems to exist more in his own mind than elsewhere. When the Vancouver Hotel Destination Association conducted a survey of American tourists and their reasons for coming to Vancouver last year, people mentioned seeing Stanley Park, experiencing the city’s night life, visiting family and friends, and making the most of the U. S. exchange rate. No one, it seems, was making the trip to see Robertson’s bike lanes.