I have read and heard some things related to the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline over the last couple of weeks that really require some comment.
With the damning report coming out of the States regarding the major leak from one of Enbridge's pipelines into the Kalamazoo River, the CEO of Enbridge then made this comment "we have learned much from this spill". What did he learn? That a cracked pipe leads to a burst pipe leads to a major oil spill. You don't have to be a genius to know that, nor do you need to destroy a river to learn it. If that's the best he can give us, then we are in trouble.
The managing editor of the Citizen wrote recently about Enbridge's statistics regarding frequency of major oil spills (odds are 1 in 500 over a 30 year lifespan). It's interesting to note that in the same paper on the same day an article described three major oil spills from pipelines in Alberta in a one-month period this year. The sizes of the spills were 3.5 million litres; 475,000 litres; 230,000 litres; all of which contaminated water. Forget about Enbridge's statistics and look at what's happening on the ground.
Also in the Citizen, in Bruce Strachan's article on the pipeline he refers to financial influence from the USA indicating that possibly $56 million went to organizations in B.C. opposed to the pipeline. He makes the comment that Canadians should make their own decisions without outside influence. Well I don't necessarily agree with that (the environment is a global issue). However let's go along with that for a minute, in which case the same comment should apply to the Chinese, who gave Enbridge $100 million to see it through the review process.
I was not impressed with Christy Clark's comment "if Enbridge is going to behave like that then they can forget it". Well unfortunately that can be interpreted as saying "behave yourself and you can have your pipeline". What is our provincial government doing when it will not comment on the pipeline until after the panel review process? Do you think for a split second that if the panel or the federal government give the pipeline the go ahead that the provincial government will oppose it?
It angers me to hear the manipulation from the federal government, some of the media and Enbridge. They are giving us two messages. One is, everything will be OK and the other is that those who oppose it are stupid. Well we are not stupid and we are not going away.
Sergio Petrucci
Prince George
