Gateway alternatives

The Harper government is about to weigh in with a final “yea” or “nay” on Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. To call this 1,177- kilometre project controversial is like calling a Category 5 hurricane a bit of a breeze. Either answer on this multibillion- dollar twin line from Alberta to the West Coast will inflame detractors.

For a landlocked province such as Alberta, there is a real interest in opening up a new route for bitumen and oil products via the Pacific.

As the government of a nation in the midst of an aggressive lobbying campaign to convince its American neighbour to approve TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, it is hard to imagine the optics of rejecting a pipeline project exclusively on Canadian turf. All signs point to a positive answer from Ottawa. But outside of the political optics, how should the Conservative government rule on Gateway? On balance, pipelines are vastly preferable to carrying oil by rail — a transportation mode that is increasing far quicker than many realize as the oil industry expands and pipelines hit capacity.

But other routes, such as the proposed Energy East pipeline that would take western crude to refineries in New Brunswick, an expanded Trans Mountain pipeline that routes oil through Vancouver and even Keystone are preferable to the risks that Northern Gateway poses to B. C.’ s coastline. Of all these pipelines, Gateway is the most problematic. It is too bad the Conservatives could not wait and see what happens with those others before offering its verdict.