I find it ironic that as a journalist you did not test the waters to what I see happening in Canada at this moment.
Since signing the Free Trade Agreement in the Mulroney years, I have seen many Canadian businesses that employed Canadians go the way of the dodo bird. I have seen a huge increase of food banks and soup kitchens. Many of the people who lost their employment are now forced to using these stop-gap measures.
Are Canadians starting to push back from this terrible deal?
According to Gas Buddy and another American company, Gas Pro, which did a article on 'why Canadian fuel prices are so high,' Canada does not have enough refinery capacity to meet its needs.
Canada sells its crude at a $10 discount and the tar sand oil or bitumen at a $25 a barrel discount. The United States in return sells us back the refined product at world prices. According to what I read on the Internet, bitumen can be converted to crude in an intermediate refinery.
The article goes on to say if a spill happened after going through this process, it would be easier to clean up.
This is just not about Kinder Morgan, there are a large number of grievances. What about all the raw logs being shipped from B.C.'s ports? Where are they going? Are we receiving world prices for these logs? How many sawmills have we closed down since signing the Free Trade Agreement? If British Columbians cut, dried and planed all these logs here how many jobs would be created?
I looked back over the years and we have been very good neighbours to the Americans.
Alaska Highway, Columbia River Treaty, Korea, cost of developing F35, NORAD, elite hockey players and the Iran affair.
The softwood duty I feel is unfair. On a recent trip, I crossed the border to the U.S.
A logging truck in Washington state has 22 tires, up here all of the trucks have 28-30 tires.
Trucks up here are carrying heavier loads. Yesterday our neighbour from the south announced a number of tariffs on a host of Canadian manufactured products. Canada can't keep shipping away good paying jobs.
Stan New
Prince George
