Ivan Giesbrecht of Northern Gateway in his letter Jan. 28 strikes out on the alleged three errors contained in Robyn Allan's column of Jan. 21.
First, there was no lengthy and comprehensive study by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce last September. The document contained no original research and the $50 million dollar claim is recycled. It was lifted from the Chamber's earlier piece released in February last year. That figure, if you read Ms. Allan's report (Bitumen's Deep Discount Deception www.robynallan.com), is based on a claim in a CIBC Research Update, but is not supported by analysis or documentation. Ms. Allan contacted the author and he said he didn't have the data and could not support the claim. No one knows how the figure has been calculated.
As far as the Canada West Foundation goes, it lifted its numbers from a study the Canadian Energy Research Institute undertook, but that study did not purport to measure current loss to the Canadian economy. Ms. Allan's report explains Canada West never checked with the Energy Institute, but made false claims anyway. Therefore, it was appropriate for Ms. Allan to say there is no credible or reliable evidence of the $50 million a day claim.
Second, Mr. Giesbrecht may not consider Ms. Allan as an expert witness on insurance and risk, but the Joint Review Panel did since she was the only expert to testify on that subject matter and the Panel basically adopted her recommendation by requiring Northern Gateway to have an almost $1 billion in stand-alone financial assurances for its pipelines. The requirement is one of the Panel's 209 conditions.
Finally the issue that benefits will be reduced if Northern Gateway can prove reduced risk was raised by Mr. Giesbrecht's boss, Janet Holder. Ms. Holder suggested this to the Prince George Citizen. Ms. Allan suggested that if B.C. must receive its fair share then it should be a fair share of the benefits, not the risk.
Marc Eliesen
Whistler
