Northern Gateway Project May Damage Canadian Economy
B. McPherson
Economist Robyn Allan has strong words about the economic
feasibility of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project. Allan is quoted
in the Calgary Herald this morning:
"The emperor has no clothes," Allan said in an interview. "We're told it is a gross producing economic opportunity, but in fact it's an oil price shock to the economy."
Allan, a respected economist, once named in the top 200 CEOs
in Canada, presented her report to the commission charged with hearings about
the project which would ship bitumen (oil sands product) overseas.
Her report that the proposed pipeline would have a
depressing effect on the Canadian economy is in sharp contrast to the sunny
predictions put about by the Canadian PM Steven Harper and his Minister of
Natural Resources of many good jobs and wealth to the government coffers. The
cards seemed stacked from the start of the hearings into the pipeline project
when the Minister of Natural Resources dubbed those in opposition to the
project radicals and pawns of foreign interests. Confidence in the neutrality
of the commission is further eroded by the refusal of the National Energy Board
to grant Allan intervenor status at the table. The Alberta Federation of Labour(AFL)
which did have status chose to use her
report in their presentation.
The AFL has also made the full report available on line. It
makes for particularly interesting reading
in the section that specifically addresses the ownership
interests of the PRC (People’s Republic of China)( starting page 33). The
report addresses the expected economic impact of shipping the crude product
offshore rather than refining it in country and garnering the value added
impact.
The promise of widespread employment in the $5.5 billion
project may also be a dream of a different kind of pipe. The federal government
is pushing for a free trade agreement with Europe. The agreement well into its
final stages call the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will
have far reaching labour consequences which will allow foreign companies to
import labour for projects that they will be able to bid on. Currently the
TILMA agreement between Alberta and British Columbia mandates that
municipalities and improvement districts must not restrict contracts worth more
than $50 000 to local bidders.
Vancouver construction workers saw a similar event when an
extension to the taxpayer funded SkyTrain was being built. The company that won
the bid brought in low paid workers from Mexico, shutting out locals.
There have been vocal presentations about the environmental
costs and risks in building the Northern Gateway pipelines, but have been told
that the risks are worth it for the ‘greater good’ of the country. Now it seems
that the ‘greater good’ will be those offshore interests that will refine
Canadian petroleum and sell it back to us for our ‘greater loss’.
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