The expansion of the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain oil pipeline advanced to a new construction stage, in Acheson, Alberta, Canada Dec. 3, 2019.
Naysayers want to just flush the money, our money, that Justin spent buying the pipeline down the toilet?
This isn’t a project with a lifespan of a few years. The original line is coming up on 70 years of service. Yes, the cost today is high but over the next 70 years it will more than pay for itself and contribute to Canada’s energy self-sufficiency.
Without the existing pipeline, Lower Mainland B.C. has zero petroleum products. The locally refined products are produced with crude from TMX. The products refined here are shipped by TMX. The American refinery in Point Roberts, Wash. is fed from the TMX line.
Once you’ve successfully killed the only pipeline from the oil source to the consumption point, what is going to provide fuel for the millions who live in Vancouver and area?
Start doing your homework and understand the ramifications of your ill-informed stand on the pipeline, politicians. Do your job. The average guy is better informed than you.
L.G. Anderson, Spruce Grove
Fundraiser a welcome distraction
Congratulations to Balwin School and Team Nugent-Hopkins for getting the most votes and winning $25,000 for their charity, YOUCAN Youth Services in the Hockey Helps Kids contest. The support we received, especially from the north side of Edmonton, was both overwhelming and humbling. #Northsidepride is much more than just a hashtag.
Kudos to the other three schools that earned $10,000 for their respective charities. The contest was a welcome distraction from all of the craziness going on in the world.
Craig O’Connor, Edmonton
Hospital construction faster in China
The Misericordia Family Medicine Centre will be demolished over a four-month period and the replacement emergency department built over two years. Perhaps Alberta Infrastructure should get the address of the contractor in Wuhan, China who built a 1,000-bed hospital in some 10 days.
Thomas Mojelsky, Edmonton
Indigenous self-government unresolved
Re. “Real consultation must occur,” Opinion, Feb. 20
This op-ed by Ed Whitcomb clarifies that the federal government has made a mistake and has failed to fulfill its obligation of real consultation.
This article skirts the issue of self-government and the Indian Act. This is a basic and unresolved issue between the government and Indigenous peoples. Indigenous people lay claim to traditional forms of self-government such as hereditary chiefs that are highly variable across the country, seemingly changeable, and often are not democratic.
Even today, the Crown and the Canadian people should not accept these variable and undemocratic forms of self government. This, of course, is why the Indian Act, which has been used to abuse Indigenous peoples, remains the law of the land.
If Indigenous peoples want this Act to end, surely they have an obligation to advance an acceptable, uniform and democratic form of self-government. They need to decide who speaks for them in a democratic country. There is an opportunity here for real reconciliation.
John D. Dyck, Edmonton
Blockades go too far
Hats off to the anti-protesters at the Acheson rail crossing for dismantling the blockade. I’m all for free speech, but do it by standing beside the railway or bridge or roadway with a sign, not by preventing people from going about their daily business and trying to earn a living to support their families.
I’m afraid that the native agenda has been hijacked by climate hysteria and the government is paralyzed. The silent majority now needs to be more vocal and express our concerns. Yes, natives have had a rough go but now they have the opportunity to benefit from some resource initiatives that can benefit their communities.
Jack Jones, Edmonton
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