Gord Hoekstra's article "Laying the Groundwork" regarding the Enbridge pipeline should make me feel more comfortable with this pipeline as it reported that a "medium sized spill of up to 6,300 barrels of oil would only take place once every 118 years." This information did not appear in the propaganda that showed up in my mailbox courtesy of Enbridge, called "We're building more than pipelines."
What was in that document however was information promoting the benefits of the pipeline ... all the short-term jobs, the money to be spent on the pipeline, and the supposed great revenue the governments will make as a result of the $270-billion in gross domestic product (our oil resources) that will be sent out of Canada.
Reading the document, the total tax revenue at all levels of government is $4.26 billion. Sounds like a lot until you compare the percentage of tax that this multinational is remitting for moving our resources out of our country to the percentage that you pay personally. One-and-a-half per cent tax on our resources is the reason why we have to have HST and high personal taxes. Why do we not have an export tax on our resources? When is big business going to pay its fair share?
Finally the CBC May 26 reported that 80 per cent of B.C. residents oppose the Enbridge pipeline, yet mayor Dan Rogers and former mayor Colin Kinsley sit on the advisory board trying to get this proposal through. How much are they getting paid? How out of touch are they with the general population?
Dave Fuller
Prince George
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