It is difficult to account for the full range of costs and benefits for pipeline projects, including those like Enbridge's $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline, says a senior economist with the Calgary-based Canada West Foundation.
While you can measure direct impacts, like construction jobs and tax benefits, it is more difficult to account for costs of environmental damage or cleanup, or the risks of an accident, Canada West Foundation economist Michael Holden told an UNBC symposium organized by the Northern Economics Student Society.
Holden added that economic impact studies are not always completely objective.
Public policy must also consider moral and philosophical concerns, he said.
In response to a question from the audience on how to account for the environmental costs as well as the economic costs and benefits, Holden said that methods are being developed now.
Holden said the Canada West Foundation -- a think tank aimed at bringing western views into Canadian policy debates -- hasn't taken a position on the Enbridge project, or others like it. However, the foundation believes Canada needs to create a national energy policy that would help inform decisions on individual projects.
Calgary-based Enbridge has touted the economic benefits of the project, saying it will create construction jobs as well as permanent jobs. The company also recently rolled out a benefits package to First Nations, offering them an ownership stake in the pipeline.
However, resistance to the pipeline has been growing with more First Nations voicing their opposition. Environmental groups, some Northern B.C. communities and some tourism and fishing groups are also opposed.
The groups maintain that any benefits are not worth the risk of a tanker spill on the coast or a pipeline spill that could harm salmon-bearing rivers.
Pembina Institute official Nathan Lemphers believes there are a number of questions that must be answered before a federal panel review of Enbridge's Northern Gateway project should move forward.
The review, expected to take up to two yeas, is in its preliminary stages.
Lemphers, an oilsands technical and policy analyst with Pembina, outlined to the UNBC audience that Enbridge needs to secure and make known long-term shipper contracts.
It also needs to conduct a refinery-level analysis to determine if crude from the oil sands is suited to China's refineries, and demonstrate that Chinese refineries meet Canadian environmental standards, he said.
Also on the list are quantifying upstream impacts in the oilsands and fully costing the impacts and benefits of the pipeline, including environmental impacts, said Lemphers.
