“Maybe before we go through this Gateway, we should ask ourselves a few questions about our desired future.“ The quote is from an article in the Edmonton Journal by Mike Robinson of the Bill Reid Foundation.
That’s what bothers me most about our Government’s ‘git er done’ approach concerning the export of Western oil. It’s as if jobs, the economy, jobs and more jobs are the only factors worth considering. That’s the appearance at least, especially if you glance through local media. I appreciate the concern too of potentially affected communities and the damage a theoretical spill may have on them, but even that is somewhat short-sighted given the ‘earthly’ concerns that spread far beyond our boundaries. Sure we may provide ‘safe’ oil, ‘secure’ oil and even ‘environmentally friendly’ oil (spin is a wonderful thing) …but for what purpose? To use obviously. To use, to generate more use, and to eventually come back to haunt us like a dark cloud might drift across an unprotectable boarder. The bigger picture needs to be looked at, and I haven’t heard anyone locally suggest talking about it. Aside from this article in today’s paper that is. Lol, but I suppose I don’t get out much either.
Mike Robinson also mentioned a book by Thomas Berger – Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland: the Report of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry (1977). I remember reading this back in one of my early University classes. I completely forget the course (obviously an option of some sort) and I recall only the Native Canadian instructor and some discussion with my Dad (who worked for oil companies for most of his life) around some things the book had to say. Again, I don’t recall what we talked about other than talking, but considering how damning the report was then to pipeline development, they probably weren’t the most uninteresting conversations. But it is odd how, as Mike suggests, we’re still at the same place we were over 30 years ago. I suppose the national economy isn’t something to write home about, foreign enterprise isn’t as uneventful as it once was and the general state of connectedness we share with other countries is only adding to our pile of concerns …which only makes the lure of easy oil money that much more appealing.
To state the obvious this planet isn’t getting any less crowded. I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not these pipelines will happen, but more the case of when they’ll happen. And unfortunately, given our present concerns at least, I don’t think another 30 years is going to make a difference in how we handle them. But here’s hoping.
Image from yukondigitallibrary.ca
It seems Canada will not renew its commitment (if you can call it that, some would argue) to the 
