Pipelines Will Remain a Pipe Dream

Danielle Smith's promise of a bitumen pipeline is nothing but a political abstraction

- By Don Gillmor Author of On Oil

In October, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith proposed a new pipeline. “Without question, a new bitumen pipeline to the northwest British Columbia coast has the greatest potential economic benefit of any new nation-building project,” she declared. The problem is the kind of nation it would build. Such a country would be divided, with protests from B.C., Quebec and various Indigenous groups. It would be economically unbalanced, disproportionately benefiting Alberta with royalties and tax revenue. And it would be environmentally slipshod, expediting climate change and causing Canadians to suffer in the long term. We've already built that nation. Now we should look at a different model.