I’m writing regarding the bigger issue of the B.C. pipeline, that is the depletion and export of Canadian resources.
We all forget about the long-term real value of Canada’s resources base. Margaret Thatcher sold all of the UK oil reserves to corporations – there is basically little oil left now in the North Sea. The boom was short lived. This has and will impact the ability of the UK and Europe in times of crisis to have cheap oil and gas prices. Imagine now if Europe was awash in cheap gasoline.
The same will happen in Canada. Oil pipe lines leaving Alberta go south to the U.S. and then on to Mexico for export to global destinations. The U.S. takes a transit fee on that oil – thank you Canada (it’s exporting our oil).
We are now proposing another such gas and oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. That oil will go to Asia – China in particular. Economic growth in China has been such that it will consume all Canada’s oil if it had the chance. Hence, their interest in buying Canadian oil companies and licences to extract oil from the sands in Alberta.
Would Canadian companies and our nation not be better off by having cheaper gasoline to run our economy and make us more competitive globally, as opposed to giving our energy away to other nations?
Why isn’t the Canadian government offering the U.S. and global corporations opportunities to set up manufacturing factories here in Canada with a promise of cheap oil fuel and gas for the next 30 years? In the long run, this will support more job growth in Canada and grow Canada’s GDP and exports. Instead we are selling our assets to nations which will use that energy to manufacture goods that we Canadians then re-import. Not good for Canadian jobs in the long term. We become a nation of buyers as opposed to producers.
Fifty years from now, Canadians will ask themselves: Why did we export so much of our oil and gas at the stupid price of $80 a barrel? What were we thinking? Oh, Canada.
Ray Winfield, Surrey