Barring civil disobedience on a scale that makes it impossible for work to start, preliminary work on the Trans Mountain pipeline and expanded terminal in Burrard Inlet could begin this year.
On the pro side of the ledger, Kinder Morgan plans to spend $6.8 billion over the course of the construction. In the realpolitik of tit for tat, we’re told an approved Trans Mountain pipeline was also the necessary trade-off to get Alberta’s support for a national carbon tax.
B.C. will get to wet its beak in the bitumen to the tune of up to $1 billion over the course of 20 years to be spent exclusively on environmental projects.
It’s true that groups like West Vancouver Streamkeepers and Seymour Salmonid Society could do a lot of good work with a steady supply of cash to restore and protect salmon habitat.
But, as many have argued, even a small spill in the inlet would mean all of their years of good work could be for naught.
Even with $1 billion in hand, there’s still a gap in the amount of risk we in B.C., and in particular on the shores of Burrard Inlet, bear versus the reward others – oil producers, contractors, shipping companies and shareholders – will enjoy.
To rectify that, we offer – tongues firmly arranged in our cheeks – a Modest Proposal. Should there be a spill in our tidewater, we’d think it only right that people who will benefit from the pipeline expansion come help in the cleanup. One way they could do that would be by drinking the bitumen-laden water until the toxic mess is gone.
That at least would put the oil and pipeline company executives on the same level as the Tsleil-Waututh, who rely on the inlet.
It would be one way to ensure those who profit from this risk also have some skin in the game.
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