Oil line breaks in Michigan and Wisconsin show how each state controls and has jurisdiction to issue permits and collect millions for damages on such lines.
In Canada, it looks like B.C. is left out in the cold. Federal plans are progressing without our province’s input or willingness to assume the costs of future breakdowns and environmental disasters.
Michigan assessed and collected $800 million from Enbridge, but Wisconsin costs will be much smaller. For B.C. it seems Enbridge would focus on pipeline repairs to get things flowing for all the Alberta sponsors.
Why federal jurisdiction over pipelines? Did it somehow follow from the origin of railroads in Canada? The CPR was created before the prairie provinces existed. Railroads remain federal “control” and have low impacts on the environment. Oil is hugely, very different! Like American states our provinces should license and control exactly where any pipeline should go. Without that, we are at the mercy of huge future costs as pipelines age and fail.
Are current Harper MPs from British Columbia listening ?
Glenn Cooper, Parksville