The recent decision by the U.S. State Department to delay the Keystone XL pipeline, pending a new route through Nebraska could be the proverbial silver lining for our own Northern Gateway Pipeline.
We here in Prince George and Northern B.C. are only too familiar with the folly of putting all of our eggs in the American basket. Between softwood lumber disputes and a U.S. housing market on life support, we have felt the devastating impact of trying to sell most of our wood to one customer. When it's good it's great, but when it's bad, it's hell.
Now, with Keystone XL, history repeats itself in the form of U.S. President Obama kowtowing to special interest groups and Hollywood actors in a desperate attempt to avoid being a one term president (too late).
The message from this is clear: America would rather import oil from some of the most corrupt and repressive regimes in the world - think Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia where woman are prohibited from driving a car and adultery is punishable by death - than a friendly democracy to the north.
Forget Obama's much publicized goal of energy security by relying on North American supplies. Forget the 20,000 jobs Keystone would have provided a moribund U.S. economy. Obama is fighting for his political life and he's playing to the cheap seats.
In giving TransCanada (owners of Keystone) the high hat treatment, the Americans have done us a favour.
Thankfully, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have promised to fast track the Northern Gateway project.
That's great news for Prince George and Northern B.C. Gateway would not only produce hundreds of high paying jobs and pump billions into the northern economy, its construction would send a clear message to the world that B.C. is open for business, and, unlike the Americans, we will not be held hostage by environmental NGOs and some First Nations bands who oppose any development.
The appointment of Prince George native Janet Holder (welcome home) as executive vice-president Western Access further underscores the commitment of Enbridge to making this pipeline a reality.
From fish to furs, wood and mining, Canadians have built one of the strongest economies in the world by responsibly harvesting our natural resources.
With a majority government and a goal to reducing red tape, let's hope Harper can streamline the environmental approval process which threatens to choke the economic life of the North, and get Gateway approved sooner than later.
By selling our oil to Asia we not only receive an extra two dollars or more a barrel, but at the same time we send a clear message to the Americans that we are no longer dependent on them as our sole customer, with all the economic pitfalls and uncertainty that brings to Canadians and our economic future as a nation.
-- Prince George Citizen
