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(Adapted from a column by Steven Guilbeault originally published in the Métro newspaper.)
"There was more sad environmental news from Ottawa this January.
The Minister of Natural Resources, Joe Oliver, published an open letter in the Globe and Mail denouncing “environmental and other radical groups” for opposing the Northern Gateway pipeline project. The Minister also announced that his government would reduce the duration and scope of environmental assessments.
Let’s start by looking at the Northern Gateway project. This is a proposed pipeline that would export tar sands crude to China. It would:
- extend 1000 km from Alberta to British Columbia
- cross hundreds of lakes, rivers and streams
- directly impact nearly thirty communities
It is estimated that the project will create 104 permanent jobs in Canada… 104!
The tar sands are already:
- the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country
- the main reason why Canada pulled out of Kyoto
Tar sands subsidies strengthen the correlation between the Canadian dollar and the price of oil, making exporters in other sectors – e.g., manufacturing, which thrives on a lower dollar – vulnerable to changes in the oil market.
The upward pressure oil exerts on the value of our dollar is said to have caused the loss of 55,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector in Quebec between 2002 and 2007.
The Minister is wrong to claim that we environmentalists are against all development. Environmental groups across the country work with
- businesses
- communities
- provincial governments
to develop environmental solutions for the
- construction industry
- transportation sector
- energy sector
But it is true that we are against the development model proposed by the Harper government, which seeks to make Canada an oil state with anti-democratic tendencies.”
Steven Guilbeault is cofounder and deputy executive director of Equiterre.
