To the Editor,
The time has come for the pipeline protesters to start facing the facts about the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
The Canadian constitution states that each province has total control over its natural resources. It also states that if one province has to cross over into another province, to get the natural resource exported to market, this becomes the responsibility of the federal government and the constitution states that in the case example of twinning the Kinder Morgan pipeline, B.C. has no say in the project being completed.
B.C.’s present minority NDP government is wasting taxpayer dollars on legal fees, which at the end will just prove a waste of time. Tax dollars that could be used for health and education expenses. Premier John Horgan is only trying to enhance the future of his political career. His fight to stop the expansion is a coverup, and at the end, he will, say, “I did try”.
The pipeline has been in existence since 1953. Kinder Morgan wants to twin the pipeline. Kinder Morgan will pay the B.C. government $25 to $50 million per year for a period of 20 years once the new dual pipeline is in operation.
Protesters need to remember that this money is their money by way of the government bank account, or taxpayers’ bank account in reality. their provincial government is only the manager of this bank account.
Protesters must realize that work camps are no longer popular and are only located where the construction is not near a town or city.
This means that all hotel rooms will be filled with construction workers, restaurants will be much busier than normal, parts store, equipment rentals, machine shops, mechanical shops, etc. will all be part of the boom due to construction from the Alberta border all the way to Burnaby, B.C. Three years of continued boom. Most of the wages earned on the project will be union wages.
Also Kinder Morgan has noted that once the additional tanker traffic begins, all tankers will have tugboat escorts all the way out to the open ocean waters. Not once has a protester mentioned anything about the tugboat escort.
Joe Sawchuk,
Duncan