Prime Minister’s willingness to put federal dollars on the line in response to ultimatums should alarm all Canadians
Today I released a media statement in response to the meeting in Ottawa between Rachel Notley, Justin Trudeau and John Horgan concerning the future of the Transmountain pipeline project. It is reproduced below.
Media Release
Weaver: Prime Minister’s willingness to put federal dollars on the line in response to ultimatums should alarm all Canadians
For immediate release
April 15, 2018
VICTORIA, B.C. – Andrew Weaver, leader of the B.C. Green Party, issued the following statement following the meeting between Premiers John Horgan and Rachel Notley and Prime Minister Trudeau regarding the Trans Mountain pipeline.
“I am encouraged to see Premier Horgan continue to stand up for B.C.’s right to protect our economy, our environment and our people,” said Weaver.
“It is deeply troubling that the Prime Minister is considering using public funds to absorb investor risk in this project. The message this sends to investors is that if they issue ultimatums for projects based on fundamentally faulty economic rationale, the Prime Minister will put taxpayer dollars on the line to bail them out. Since Kinder Morgan made its case to the NEB predicated on oil prices being at least $100 per barrel, markets have shifted dramatically and oil price projections are between $40-70 per barrel.
“This should concern all Canadians who took the Prime Minister at his word when he said he would build a clean, forward-looking economy. That means providing targeted incentives and support programs for industries who are embracing low-carbon solutions. Instead, the Prime Minister is doubling down on a sunset industry whose expansion puts our climate targets out of reach. We need to be investing in our shared future, not subsidizing the wealth of Texas oil companies.
“Three years into his mandate, it appears the Trudeau Liberals have no actual plan for transitioning to the low-carbon economy. This is a massive missed opportunity to make Canada a global leader in climate solutions. Worse, his insistence in pushing this project through despite significant Indigenous and community opposition risks everything that makes Canada great – our commitment to human rights, our beautiful natural environment and our international reputation as a peaceful nation of hard workers unafraid to tackle the challenges before us.
“B.C.’s world-leading climate policies introduced by Premier Gordon Campbell showed the world that climate action and a thriving economy are compatible. My caucus is working closely with Premier Horgan’s to develop a climate plan that will make B.C. a world leader once again. We will continue to provide this leadership in B.C. because we know it is the only way to secure a bright economic future for our province and for our country.”
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Media contact
Jillian Oliver, Press Secretary
+1 778-650-0597 | jillian.oliver@leg.bc.ca
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30 Comments
Oil is a benefit to humanity and we should support its cheap and safe transmission and shipment to whoever needs it. The sooner we turf out the Greens and NDP the better it will be.4
Dear Mr. Weaver. Why don’t you do all of us a favor and resign. Come down from your ivory tower and mingle with the peasants – you know those people who work for a living and have real jobs. Let me enlighten you – developing the resources of today will help pay for the technologies of tomorrow. Perhaps you don’t understand simple economics. In your pathetic fairy tale world you sprinkle pixie dust and suddenly we have green economy where we all sing kumbai and hold hands!
You must love the sound of your own voice – a legend in your own mind!
Thank you Mr. Weaver. I am very disappointed with Prime Minister Trudeau’s position. As someone very familiar with our west coast he should be very aware of the impacts of increased traffic and the hazard this poses to our environment. We have a responsibility to the wildlife and sea life that inhabit the area in and around the Salish Sea as to ensure they are protected. I am so sick of the “almighty” dollar being the basis of too many decisions. Once the damage is done there is no going back….We need to make choices that look well ahead into the future, rather than only short term. If we truly want to become invested in a “green” economy, Mr. Trudeau is way off base! It is not enough to “talk the talk”, he must also “walk the walk” and I haven’t seen that happening as I had hoped!
Thank you Andrew Weaver and the Green Party for standing along side the NDP on this highly controversial topic.
Most dangerous MLA in BC today. You should be held responsible for the destruction of the future of BC and Canada. The technology is not here, yet, to get off fossil fuels. Perhaps you could tell BC taxpayers, whose pockets you are in!
Please step down sir. You endanger us all.
I will not engage your garbage or your screeching anti everything. It is to easy to reckognize that you are a very intelligent fellow
But you represent the tiniest fraction of people at this point. You now represent the criminal element.
You represent a faction that you have convinced are above us all. Do not have to do anything because your cause will always be sacred above all others. Your ability to compromise, calm, and keep control are non existent. Your stand was to have been made a very long time ago but of course, as demonstrated, you are of a divine path that most of us, as you have made clear are too stupid to grasp. Your direct, orchestrated attack on my country folk, your obvious and orchestrated attack upon our country and right to elect, my flag, my system of law and authority, your disturbing disdain for the people of BC and Canada who simply believe that they are the best in the world, the best qualified to see thes products safely out of our area towards delivery. I, unlike yourself, have great faith in the technically sound operations of Canadians to access our resources as well as to work to develope some of those pie in the sky concepts that most unfortunately currently are simply not working. Love clean energy, and have been very involved volunteering for the betterment of our planet. Hope I keep doing it but first I wish to reclaim control of My Province and Country and will work hard to expose the underbelly of your out of control, lawlessness,
that you are inciting against Canadians, our flag, and our system.
Your positions are all very debatable, how we do things by the way, and it would not take much to prove you wrong if you are willing to a public, national, televised debate between yourself and really, who ever, you must leave your groups and spitting venomous troops outside and defend your position to break the laws of this land after they afforded you opportunity after opportunity, over 6 years worth, to get your two bits worth in and indeed succeed in delays as implementation of the line took place.
Your process of getting your own way on who knows what is flawed. It is why we do not have an anything goes system.
Your disdain for our people, our system, our ELECTED GOVERNMENTS are palpable.
Your methodology of dismissing, like all of us for fools, except the rangers of course, but there as well is an obvious group of malcontents.
Mayors and ex chiefs of this or that do not scare me. Been faced with before and we as a country always comes through because we as a country stand on guard for thee. In particular against lawless, uncontrolled chaos intentionally aimed st the general public as part of the planned attack. The goal to do as much harm as possible during your brief moment of time will be met head on by our country and you will, because you are priveledged to live in a land as accepting and decent as ours, be stopped of your attacks but also you will be welcomed back into the fold to once again promote your particular narrow minded views and try and get your movement going again as their anklets come off.
You have a responsibility here. Those of us who do not enjoy the rich areas you represent
are simply not capable of the cash outlay, as prices of absolutely everything skyrocket in reaction to your obstinance and declared war against ALL the rest of us. I reject you outright at this point and will be an active part of what sees you leashed and stopped.
I do not offer best regards. I do honour your right to object, speak, but not your method of attack on our people because you got what you wanted, thisnis a staged publicity event in the name of your fame and now great shame.
Let the puppet go so we can peacefully move to our next phase of fossil fuel money’s going towards researching and developing new energy options, educating our young to a new way of doing things. Your portrayal of us all as evil is out of step and the reality is companies that have been propped up by natural resource extraction are the very companies financing clean energy and project management.
The funny thing is that the very ridings you represent are wealthy because of the business they conducted in this country and I bet they are all willing to invest huge dollars in clean energy research. Encourage them to make your ridings examples to the world for the research funding and clean technologies we all hope we are heading for. After you get out!!!
I was born under the light and stink of flares of Turner Valley and raised a half mile from a cracker plant and flare at Westerose. I visualize turbines atop the mountains and solar farms on the south slopes. Electric cars, and buses will join the electric trains and soon oil will be obsolete. This is what going green means to me. Thank you for holding the line.
Naomi Klein, famous Canadian author of “Shock Doctrine,” basically laid out the kind of game being played here. Kinder Morgan has created a false crisis, and the Canadian Prime Minister is responding to that false crisis. People usually make poor judgements during a crisis, which is what “Shock Doctrine” is all about.
Thank you for supporting BC and protesting this egregious waste of taxpayer funds. Corporate welfare for a dirty foreign Industry is not in the National Interest. BC should take the hint from Quebec and start talking separation. Time to move on from being a vassal state to Ottawa and Big Oil, time to move on from sunset industries and colonial models of economic development, time to put the ECO back in economics, and time to assert our rights to a clean environment!
I just sent the following to Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:
Mr. Trudeau:
I am beyond disappointed that you are insistent on constructing dirty fossil fuel infrastructure such as the Transmountain Pipeline. It is firmly established that burning fossil fuels is changing the climate in ways that will cause the suffering and deaths of billions of human beings. To buck the scientific evidence and insist on building the pipeline is to willingly and knowingly condemn billions of human beings, solely for the profit of a small number of people. I believe that this constitutes a Crime Against Humanity as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 7. Specifically, your action violates items a) Murder; b) Extermination; and k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. In addition, since the climate change caused by your insistence on building this pipeline will also make refugees of millions whose homelands will no longer be inhabitable, I believe that your action also violates item d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population. Mr. Trudeau, it is my hope that you will come to your senses and refuse to go through with these Crimes Against Humanity.
Wouldn’t taxpayer money be better spent building the infrastructure to process our own resources and export a finished product rather than simple piping out the raw goods?
Feeling alarmed as well but also saddened. That in 2018, the best national “vision” we can come up with is a bailout of former Enron executives and their pipeline company, is a real disappointment. Sometimes, I really wonder who is advising Trudeau.
B.C. will have to be a model of what can happen next. I’ve called the current “vision” a colonial echo which started with beaver skins and timbers. We just don’t seem to be able to get over exporting raw resources so some other country (Britain, France and now China and the U.S.) can process them and make the real money. At some point, we need to stand up for ourselves. I’m thankful we have that here in B.C. at the least.
Andrew – you introduced me to the the term: Intergenerational Equity. If ever there was time for an economic and social vision to achieve this, it is now. I thank you as well.
Continuing to support Site C is not going to give BC any bright future. Site C represents THE LARGEST destruction of anything in BC since WAC Bennet dam. Dr. Weaver allowingvSite C will guarantee a massive debt load will be carried by the voters taxpayers and and rate players. Holding us hostage so you can achieve PR is maybe not the way to go. Stop playing cards
We will resist, but we MUST also fast track rooftop solar rebates, start building windfarms, tax internal combustion engines, double R&D in alternate fuels, provide tax incentives for corporations turning to implement alternatives…..we can’t be caught bitching and not having an agressive renewavle program.
Thank you Andrew Weaver for keeping our minds on s necessary climate plan. Trudeau’s approach lacks courage, vision and commitment. I’m sorry to see what a disappointment he’s revealing himself to be. Shame on him.
Didn’t yee just approve a pipeline for jet fuel from the US? And tax breaks for a 40Billion $$ L&G plant.
Not sure what you are talking about. Neither of these are true.
Completely agree. No tax money for this.
Keep up the good work.
Especially it sends the wrong message to Foreign Corporate bodies to bully us ‘stupid Canadians.’ I stand with you Dr. Weaver…..while believing that Horgan KNOWS he will lose the court case, and can turn around and say “We tried our best”… If the ‘best’ is to tie it up in the courts for years, so be it.
To insist on building a pipeline ‘AT ALL COST ‘ just because he promised so , is very irresponsible. This is opportunity to get out of a bad decision, not to sink deeper.
To insist on blocking the pipeline at *ALL COSTS* is very irresponsible. This is an opportunity to back out of a foolhardy promise that was made solely to pander to voters.
Proud of BC’s stand and very pleased to see Weaver supporting the Premier on this issue. Devastated with Trudeau, wonder boy has fallen flat as a prairie slough filled with the waste from the toxic tar sands! Notley is Not an NDP Premier-a Tory in sheep’s clothing. Not impressed with Notley at all. And a curse upon Jason Kenny for his proposal which is clearly illegal!
Kenney is nothing but a CAPP puppet, bought and paid for by the biggest BIG OIL THUGS on the planet! As a vocal climate change denier, he’s likely a big believer that having BIG OIL put a few small dollars into Edmonton, OILberta’s hospital for sick children, allows them to pretend that this hospital is NOT filled with sick children from Ft. McMoney who are dying from rare forms of cancer that all his pro-oil buddies claim isn’t linked to the toxic air these sick children breathe and the polluted water they began drinking – even before they were born. This is the consequences of destroying Mother Earth for profit. In solidarity & love – FOREVER Idle NO More!!!
The tar sands represents a failed business model.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/will-dubitsky/greenwashing-wont-save-big-oils-failing-tar-sands-business-model_a_23353431/
Trudeau has shown he is not serious about a transition to a green economy while China is making the transition at a rate and intensity that makes the industrial revolution look like small stuff.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/will-dubitsky/canada-china-clean-technology_a_23378567/
Bill C-69 is a Conservative policy package in Trudeau green wrapping as Trudeau has stacked enviro impact decks to favour pipelines, no additional waterways are protected via enviro impact requirements and in situ tar sands development projects are exempt from enviro impact assessments
Your stance, evidence-based decision-making, and steadfastness are encouraging. Thank you, Mr. Weaver.
1) One of the best position statements by Mr. Weaver. He sounds more like a leader. A provincial leader. Hope next election when he talks, he does like he does here, about money, legal and politics. Exactly. He actually sounds like a Prime Minister? Good stuff.
2) He owns the Green Brand, and the ROI on Green rhetoric now so often sadly – in sound bite or published, paid or unpaid, at an opportunity cost to much wider honest voter appeal with wisdom shared on money, legal and politics not withheld. Green a given.
Be ready to deal with worse case and have pipe investors and Feds fully support as Green as it gets:
– Extra bonds or insurance.on liability and jobs guarantee.
– Extra due diligence and standard of care as per director’s personal direct liability in environmental law. See case law.
– Extra emergency response teams and technology “world leadership”.
– UVic getting fully funded to create a dedicated engineering/management combo B Comm and B.Sc and PMI accredited faculty dedicated exclusively to environmental emergency response and reclamation.
– Fair settlement to First Nations by UN arbitration.
I am in complete agreement.I am not in favour of the pipeline and I am furious with the idea that the company and its investors would be bailed out That is outrageous !!
Well said, Andrew Weaver. If the government provides funding for this project it will be a travesty.
I’m with you Weaver and Horgan too. Bitumen is radioactive. Keep fighting the good fight. And let’s get on with electoral reform in BC too … before it’s too late.
Thank-you. I appreciate your comments and vision.