Pipeline game not worth the candle - Fraser
If the Northern Gateway pipeline goes ahead, British Columbians will end up with all of the risks and few of the benefits, says Alberni Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser.
Those risks, he added, will be significant.
“British Columbia would be the doormat for Alberta oil,” Fraser said. “Out of all the risk taken to every watershed in the north — over 1,000 of them — there will be a total of 45 to 50 permanent jobs created from the Alberta border to Kitimat.”
Fraser, who worked for a time in the oil industry, said the pipeline would have half a million barrels of highly corrosive bitumen going through it — bitumen which, if there is a leak, would not float, but rather, sink to the bottom of any watercourse it enters, making cleanup virtually impossible.
“There is no cleanup,” Fraser said. “It’s heavier than water and so will sink. The only cleanup is to remove the ground from under the sinking bitumen. There has been no great invention on how to clean this stuff up.”
Fraser said comments suggesting opponents to the pipeline are there are foreign-funded radicals are unhelpful at best.
“There is no conspiracy here,” he said. “I haven’t run into many people who know of the risks who are supportive of it. For (Nanaimo-Alberni MP James) Lunney and the Prime Minister to make comments that undermine their own process is a big cause for concern. If there is a conspiracy, I would suggest the fix is in on this environmental assessment, because Harper and Lunney have already made up their minds.”
news@pqbnews.com
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