KM: Better ways to spend $4.5 billion

KM: Better ways to spend $4.5 billion

Postby Oscar » Wed May 30, 2018 9:15 am

Better ways to spend $4.5 billion

[ https://canadians.org/blog/better-ways-spend-45-billion [

May 29, 2018 - 3:42 pm

There is a lot to say about today's announcement that the Liberal government is ready to buy the Kinder Morgan pipeline and expansion for $4.5 billion.

For starters, "no".
[ https://canadians.org/media/buying-kind ... -canadians ]

The majority of people [ https://twitter.com/Tzeporah/status/986766140620783616 ] are against using public money to bail out the Kinder Morgan pipeline, let alone buy the project out right. The decision puts us on the line to cover costs of further delays and failure to proceed in the face of legal challenges and on the ground resistance to the project.

Building the pipeline would violate Indigenous rights [ https://canadians.org/blog/5-reasons-stopkm ] (over half of the Indigenous communities along the path have not signed an agreement or are actively opposed), is inconsistent with the Paris Climate Agreement and threatens waterways and the West Coast with a diluted bitumen spill.

And let's be honest, we all know it will be way more than $4.5 billion.

This doesn't even cover the construction costs for the new pipeline. Kinder Morgan estimated in December the full costs would be $7.4 billion while a former CEO of TransCanada suggested a $10 billion dollar indemnity would be needed to proceed. [ https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/trans-mount ... -1.1069099 ]

Oh, and let's not forget that, if should this all proceed, the new crown corporation, or the Canadian Pension Plan if Finance Minister Morneau gets his way from the sounds of it, would be on the hook for spill clean up costs.

The Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 cost $3.5 billion (US), supertankers from B.C.'s westridge terminal would carry close to twice the amount of oil. Costs have gone up, not down. And this says nothing of whether the waters, which many jobs and livelihoods depend on for tourism and fishing, could be adequately cleaned. [ https://www.macleans.ca/economy/a-b-c-p ... would-pay/ ]

I'll repeat, there is a lot to say about this.

As the next few days unfold one of the things I'm thinking about is how the federal government can magically make this $4.5 billion appear for a broken pipeline plan but not for other clear priorities.

How else would you spend $4.5-$10 billion dollars?

Here are a couple of my ideas:

• $10 billion in energy efficiency could generate 146,000 jobs, lowering home heating bills and climate pollution.
[ http://greeneconomynet.ca/wp-content/up ... y-2016.pdf ]

• $10 billion dollar investment over 5 years in higher speed rail would generate 101,600 jobs.
[ http://greeneconomynet.ca/wp-content/up ... y-2016.pdf ]

• $4.5 billion would cut all tuition fees in half.
[ https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites ... y_Fees.pdf ]

• It would buy 4 to 10 years of clean drinking water for all First Nations.
[ https://canadians.org/sites/default/fil ... r-2018.pdf ]

• $11.5 billion per year would create a single-payer pharmacare plan in Canada with direct savings to Canadians of the same amount.


Andrea Harden-Donahue's blog
Energy & climate justice campaigner
[ https://canadians.org/blogs/andrea-harden-donahue ]
Oscar
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Re: KM: Better ways to spend $4.5 billion

Postby Oscar » Wed May 30, 2018 9:36 am

Trudeau commits to buy Kinder Morgan pipeline as First Nations water advisories increase

[ https://canadians.org/blog/trudeau-comm ... s-increase ]

May 29, 2018 - 4:23 pm

This morning, the Trudeau government confirmed that it would pay $4.5 billion to buy the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The pipeline project is estimated to cost up to $ 7.4 billion.

This decision was made as the total number of drinking water advisories (DWAs) on First Nations reserves significantly increased this month. There were a total of 124 DWAs at the beginning of May and now the number has spiked to 174 advisories in the last couple of weeks.

The Trudeau government had committed to ending DWAs by 2021. But there hasn’t been a significant decrease in the total number of drinking water advisories and the numbers in fact increased this month.

In December, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated the cost of ending boil water advisories by 2020 to be $3.2 billion [ https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/12/0 ... _23300406/ ].The PBO’s report also found that the Trudeau government was spending 70% - at most - of what it needed to on water advisories. [ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pbo-ind ... -1.4437451 ]

So the $4.5 billion Trudeau committed to bailing out Kinder Morgan could end boil water advisories in First Nations.

The Kinder Morgan pipeline crosses 1,355 waterways putting communities’ drinking water at risk. Coldwater Indian Band, along with several other Indigenous nations, launched a legal change because the pipeline cuts right through the nation’s drinking water source. [ https://canadians.org/blog/it-our-stand ... n-and-feds ]

Instead of allocating adequate funding to ensure clean water for First Nations and uphold the human rights to water and sanitation, the Trudeau government has committed $4.5 billion to bail out Kinder Morgan and ram through a project that puts the drinking water of Indigenous nations and municipalities at risk.

Council of Canadians Climate Campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue urges us to take action today, "Please take time today to call your MP or visit their office and let them know how you feel about owning an export pipeline that, if expanded, will violate Indigenous rights, is inconsistent with the Paris Climate Agreement, and threatens a massive diluted bitumen spill in waterways along the pipeline path and coastal waters (Coast Salish Sea). A spill would threaten good jobs and livelihoods based on fisheries and tourism." [ https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members ]

She adds, "You can use our 5 reasons to #Stop KM [ https://canadians.org/blog/5-reasons-stopkm ] for your conversation with
your MP and a very useful piece written by the Council of Canadians’ new Prairies-NWT regional organizer Bronwen Tucker debunking a number of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s economic arguments." [ https://canadians.org/blog/fact-checkin ... ing-points ]

Contact your MP today!
[ https://www.ourcommons.ca/Parliamentarians/en/members ]

NOTE: The 174 DWAs include both “long-term” and “short-term” advisories. The Trudeau government has divided the total DWAs into “long-term’ [ https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/15065 ... 6514230742 ] and “short term’ advisories [ https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/15065 ... 6514230742 ]and only focuses on ending “long term” DWAs but these
categories are misleading.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada states that long-term DWAs are advisories that have been in effect for more than one year [ https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/15065 ... 6514230742 ]. Indigenous Services Canada says (LINK NOT WORKING) short term advisories are “a temporary water quality issue on a specific water system.” But some of the “short-term” DWAs have
been lifted and reinstated and lifted and reinstated again several times over the years. So the Trudeau government categorizing some DWAs as “short-term” hides the fact that some of these First Nations have been without clean drinking water for many years.

Emma Lui's blog
Water campaigner for the Council of Canadians
[ https://canadians.org/blogs/emma-lui ]
Oscar
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Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm


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