In the horse trade of all horse trades, Prime Minister Carney has cleared a path for the kind of Canadian oil and gas expansion not even Stephen Harper could’ve imagined.
In the newly released “Canada-B.C. Cooperative Prosperity Agreement”, premier Eby has agreed, among other things, not to fight a new Alberta pipeline charging through B.C. in exchange for even more federal support and resources for B.C.’s floundering LNG industry.
Premier Eby assured the public on Thursday that the north coast tanker ban will stay in place, which is no comfort considering Alberta proposed a new oil pipeline to the south coast, and that LNG tankers don’t fall under the ban in the first place.
The agreement and its contents are overwhelming. It is the definition of a maximalist agenda (you can read more about it in the first news article below). No more clean versus dirty fossil fuels, no more climate commitments; the masks are all the way off.
Eby, Smith and Carney are lining up together to bankrupt our future for a last-ditch gamble on more oil and gas, more pipelines and LNG terminals because this “big plan” is actually a house of cards in this time of rapid energy transition.
Large question marks remain around future demand for Canada’s gas, a reality Eby and Carney don’t want to admit. It’s why private sector proponents have hesitated to invest in Alberta’s oil pipeline, and LNG terminals like Ksi Lisims still haven’t been green-lit by investors.
Hijacking public resources – like clean electricity and billions of our tax dollars – to make these projects real reads more desperate than aspirational.
Despite the sweltering heat in Europe, the predicted record temperatures this summer in Canada and wildfire season in B.C. already causing evacuations, these supposedly “progressive” politicians have a one track mind.
We’ll keep you updated as we learn more about this carefully constructed agreement to move Canada into the role of global fossil fuel powerhouse.
But the Dogwood community was built to fight this agenda and organize for something better - and that’s what we’re going to do, together.
