Kinder Morgan seems to be pressuring the B.C. government to cave in on the pipeline, not to mention the Alberta and Canadian Governments engineering similar efforts at a quick environmental surrender. It seems now is the right time to clarify who will pay in case of a Pacific coast spill.
Lac Megantic ended up with the railroad responsible going broke, hence no money, while the main private company who contracted them later claimed it's not their fault as they contracted out the work. Meanwhile Alberta says B.C. shouldn't get any profits while taking all the oil spill risks. BP Petroleum was (and probably still is) fighting in court to avoid all the costs involved in the Gulf spill and who paid for the Kalamazoo spill and everything involved in the Prince William Sound fiasco?
I'm sure some readers from Chetwynd could attest to fresh water costs and other local fees they paid while their water system was down when an oil pipeline burst a few years back. And probably many similar stories are likely from those in Kalamazoo, those near the Saskatchewan River and Wabamun. The recent spill in Burrard Inlet is in court I think after the Mehrassa crew initially denied the spill was caused by them.
Even though the former B.C. Liberal government was fighting with the Alberta government over pipeline revenue they, under both Gordon Campbell and Christie Clark, couldn't justify the cost of recovering oil from a sunken B.C. ferry still at risk of polluting the Inside Passage. It's also likely tankers spilling oil will head for foreign ports and hide behind foreign laws and lawyers.
In a nutshell, who's going to step up for environmental responsibility costwise? Settle that question and you might find common ground for a solution. Politically the Canadian, B.C. and Alberta governments shudder at the re-election taxpayer pressure on them if they take responsibility. So what's the answer? Leave the oil in the ground until spill cost responsibility is legally and permanently settled.
Alan Martin
Prince George
