Since assuming office in November 2015, the Trudeau government has allocated some $5.3 billion in funding that cannot be recovered. Only $997 million has been allocated for projects inside Canada.
The rest (roughly $4.3 billion) has been spent outside of Canada on such items as aid to migrants, and advising developing countries on implementing climate change policy. With oil prices depressed and manufacturing in Canada at a low, wouldn’t the money have been better spent here, or at least the larger portion of it? Regarding domestic spending, the liberal government is giving Quebec’s Bombardier Aerospace about $1 billion to help them become solvent (again), but have earmarked a pittance to help weaken western Canadian industry and its increasing number of unemployed Albertans. The prime minister has yielded to rabid environmentalists, aboriginals, special interest groups and foreign lobbyists fighting against proposed petroleum development projects. He should be aware that pipelines are generally safer, cleaner and less expensive than railroad or freighter transport. Like it or not, overall global demand for energy will increase by about one third by 2034, a demand for which Canada has tremendous supply. Why is the prime minister, along with our premier, so determined to permanently terminate coal, oil and natural gas production in Alberta? Extraction and utilization of these fuel sources should be phased out gradually over a period of years or decades, and at minimal cost to the public, in tandem with the measured and economical phasing-in of reliable and affordable alternative energy systems. It should be noted that fossil fuels, though admittedly not the cleanest, are currently the least expensive forms of energy.
In opposing the Energy East pipeline system, are Quebec Premier Phillippe Couillard and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre aware that sixteen petroleum tankers transporting oil from Middle East producers, (incidentally, many of them known human rights violators) travelling seven thousand kilometres across the ocean, cause as much or more sulfur based/CO2 pollution as most of the cars that travel in our country? Apparently not. And, it appears perfectly acceptable to dump some 8 billion litres of raw sewage from the city of Montreal into the St Lawrence River, upstream from three indigenous reservations, all of whom draw their drinking water from the river. Where is Catherine McKenna, our minister of Environment, while this is happening? Has she been silenced by the Trudeau regime on this particular matter, and why is something like this seemingly acceptable to the environmentalists?
Prime Minister Trudeau is ‘gung ho’ on a carbon tax, but he was not overly successful in getting all of the premiers on board during climate change meetings in Vancouver. There was only partial consent on general principles, but neither a complete nor willing agreement on details. First of, why do we require a carbon tax unless it benefits everyone, especially when other major industrial nations like the United States, Russia, China and India are not adopting one. It seems very confusing when one realizes that there is a lot of pollution, aside from carbon emissions, which need to be addressed. Why is the pollution facet not being acted upon? We have somehow gravitated from global warming to carbon emissions and now onto methane gas (primarily a by-product of agricultural production), so what will the environmentalists think of next? Should we not attack pollution first then carbon emissions?
During the 2015 federal election, Trudeau and the liberals made a big deal about the overwhelming need to invest in infrastructure. The announced budget apparently does not regard pipelines as energy infrastructure, as they were mentioned in the budget only along with canals and minor forms of public works. And how does the Liberal government define infrastructure anyway? It appears to refer to replacing crumbling roads and bridges in Eastern Canada, mostly in Montreal and Toronto and has very little to do with Western Canada, or so it seems.
With the attitude that seems to prevail with the present federal government regarding the much needed oil pipelines projects, and in particular the worsening unemployment situation in Alberta along with little or total disregard to agriculture, it would appear the Laurentien group in the east would rather do business with human rights violators for their energy requirements than with Alberta. They regard the west as second-class citizens and want to keep it that way. However, we are not second-class citizens, and will not accept being treated as such by the East. One can rest assured that were the oilsands located in Ontario or Quebec, there would be pipelines stretching all over Canada in every direction from east to west, regardless of whether British Columbia, the Prairies, the Maritimes or Aboriginals liked it or not!
