Pieces of bridal bunting stubbornly clinging to the ceiling made the Columbus Community Centre on Domano look like it was nursing a honeymoon hangover when it hosted hearings into Enbridge`s Northern Gateway project for the last two weeks.
The decorations were fitting for what was supposed to be the all-but consummated shotgun nuptials between the people of northern B.C. and an 1,177-kilometre twin pipeline connecting Alberta's oilsands to the West Coast. After all, Stephen Harper's Tory federal government had all but sucked up a mouthful of oilsands,walked from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitmat, and spat their load in a bucket by the Pacific Ocean to convince people to acquiesce to their dream of Canadian energy superpowerdom. Environmental protections had been cut, eco-activists villified, scientific oversight blindfolded, and the whole review process "streamlined" to the point where a Conservative minister could overrule the Joint Review Panel that was supposed to grant approval on the project.
All that was left to get the bitumen flowing was an apperance of due dilligence, a show trial of a consultation process and, perhaps, an "I do" from someone who lived around here. But a funny thing happened on the way to the altar - what should have been a rough wooing is turning into a runaway bride.
It`s a thought former B.C. energy minister Richard Neufeld aired earlier this month when he wondered if the entire process is moot because, even if the National Energy Board, which is conducting the Joint Review Panel, approves the project, Enbridge "has left such a sour taste in most peoples' mouths." The Northern Gateway is in danger of reaching Fukushima levels of political radioactivity, to the point where even a government as callous and pigheaded as Harper's Tories would think twice about OKing it for fear it would blowback on them like Gordon Campbell's HST.
The Calgary energy firm may have reckoned on such violent public reaction to its project but it's doubtful and Janet Holder, a senior company official, admitted regulatory delays have already made a mark, pushing the project's proposed startup date to 2018 from 2016. And the hearings in Prince George have hardly been the "confidence-building exercise" the firm hoped it would be, with Enbridge being hammered in the hearings by a motley assemblage of a suddenly dynamic, election conscious B.C. Liberal government, eco-activists, and First Nation representatives.
And the company is showing the strain. Enbridge expert witness Drummond Cavers snipped at a witness with the delightful accusation they were "cavilling after a hair," an obscure turn of phrase meaning to raise a trivial objection that hinted the firm was reaching the limits of its patience and its thesaurus.
Enbridge's Gateway head John Carruthers, after environmental minister Terry Lake took the firm to task for what he described as its unsatisfactory answers, lamented that the proposal was being caught between being flexible enough to respond to the concerns raised during the hearings and being able to provide concrete responses. The Globe and Mail points out Enbridge isn't being unreasonable - firms often wait for regulatory approvals before investing more money in fleshing out a project - but that the last people who should be playing for sympathy are the Keystone Kops of Kalamazoo.
It is possible to feel a little sorry for Enbridge, in the same way one supposes one would balk at the inhumanity of watching the torture of weasels or Peter Benchley regretting writing Jaws. The firm is being called to task by a mixture of lawyers and laymen; it must be frustrating, attempting to justify and explain oneself to hostile amateurs.
Where are our guys, the federal authorities and scientists we pay to vet these things? Well, for example, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans wasn't able to provide a risk assessment for the 1,000 streams and rivers the pipeline will cross after Harper's Tories laid off 32 of the 92 habitat staff in B.C. and closed offices in Prince George and Smithers. It's bush league manoeuvres like that Enbridge can thank when it wonders why it paid $300 million to take part in a review process with little credibility and much public hostility.
That said, Enbridge is really being exposed only to the scrutiny of the quicky informed and only needs to deal in generalities. It is a little absurd that much of the harshest technical criticism is being done by the likes of dedicated volunteers like Murray Minchin and Chris Peter, who poured over hundreds of pages of documents. It's oversight by guerilla action, with the fate of a $6 billion project being decided by civilian irregulars, Syria/Libya-style.
Yet, more than anything, what the two interveners did to prepare for the hearings says more about the project than their hours of testimony. Minchin, a Kitimat postal worker, and Peter, a Prince George engineer, put their lives on hold and sacrificed careers, sleep and personal gain, spending months transforming themselves into pseudo-Gateway experts because they believe the pipeline requires a severe, sober examination.
They deserve thanks for their dedication and their efforts bring to mind this exchange from the
Godfather II:
Michael Corleone: "I saw a strange thing today. Some rebels were being arrested. One of them pulled the pin on a grenade. He took himself and the captain of the command with him. Now the soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren't."
Hyman Roth: "What does that tell you?"
Corleone: "They could win."
