Broken Promises and Broken Pipelines The Great Oil Tar Sands Bamboozle
Representatives from the TransCanada Corporation ….or perhaps TranceCanada would be more accurate… have been hosting workshops across New Brunswick to spew hopium to struggling rural communities in our province in order to promote their Energy East Pipeline project.
This ambitious plan proposes to build a pipeline from the oil tar sands in Alberta across the country to carry the tar sands crude to a deep water oil terminal in the Bay of Fundy….one of the most spectacular, ecologically diverse and fragile eco-systems in the world….and a major tourist attraction….to hold this dirtiest crude on the planet as it waits to be offloaded into boats which will then ship it to Asia to be refined.
The hopium TransCanada is so liberally spreading is, of course, the promise of jobs jobs jobs to poverty stricken rural communities that have been dying at a rapid clip due to government cutbacks and loss of services.
So, as a drowning person grabs at a lifeline these communities can only see a golden future in these promises, but the truth is, the proposed pipeline is not going to rebuild our economy.
In fact, what it will do is endanger and possibly destroy our greatest wealth….our water and our agricultural land…and those promised jobs are simply not there.
It all sounds good, and it seems like there would be constructions jobs galore and as the pipeline goes through towns, the local businesses will enjoy a boom.
But, let’s stop and take a closer look at the details. Laying aside the ecological issues for a moment, consider the promises of all these jobs.
The pipeline across NB will be about 400 km long. It takes about a week to lay 1 km of pipe, but that doesn’t mean 400 weeks of jobs for locals….it will be laid all at once by crews working in tandem and will take less than a year to complete.
TransCanada will use their own trained crews to lay the pipe. Why would they bother to train locals when they can get it done and get out by using imported experienced help? There won’t even be much land clearing, as they plan to follow the power line, which is already cleared.
Water will be the gold of the 21st century as pure, clean water becomes ever more scarce across the globe due to drought and pollution. This pipeline will cross 117 named streams in NB, and countless unnamed waterways, all of which feed into the St John River.
So far, these tar sands pipelines average 2 spills per year per 1,000 km of pipeline.
If the pipeline is installed, it will run over one million gallons of sweet crude or diluted bitumen per day under our rivers and through our watersheds.
A recent open house presentation was made in Plaster Rock. TransCanada representatives handed out glossy brochures promoting the pipeline project.
New Brunswick does desperately need new industry and opportunities for its residents. However, these pretty brochures say nothing about the actual number of jobs that will be created, and when asked point blank about real employment for local residents, company reps were unable to come up with any actual figures.
This lack of a firm reply should make everyone stop to examine this project a whole lot more closely, and not let their fears and hopes make them jump on the pipeline bandwagon!
Big corporations, no matter what business they are in, are operated to make money for the shareholders and the company executives. This mandate, in fact, is written into every corporate contract… the interests of the shareholders come first, always.
So corporations are mandated by law to do whatever is necessary to increase profits and decrease operating costs. Money and profit is always the most important consideration in any corporate venture.
It simply would not make economic sense for TransCanada to bother with training local workers how to fit and lay pipe for a project that will be finished in under a year when they already employ their own experienced workers.
They aren’t here to restore our economy….they are here to make money for TransCanada.
The next open house will be held in Stanley, NB in September. Stanley is another tiny village, struggling to survive. This pipeline is rousing some violent sentiments and differences of opinion between folks who are concerned for the environment, and folks who are desperate for jobs.
Environmental concerns should come first, because our land and water is what will feed us and support us….we cannot eat or drink money if we suffer a pipeline disaster…..and it is only a matter of time before a spill occurs.
Stephanie Kelley
