Alberta Premier Alison Redford is engaging in more than a little political rhetoric when she says the proposed Energy East pipeline project to transport Alberta oil to Eastern Canada 鈥渋s truly a nation-building project.鈥�
As national dreams go, it鈥檚 not exactly on par with Sir John A. Macdonald鈥檚 91原创 91原创 Railway. For one, 70 per cent of the pipeline is already in the ground in the form of TransCanada鈥檚 existing Alberta-to-Ontario natural gas pipeline, which will be converted to accept oil.
For another, laying pipe to New Brunswick lacks the drama of blasting a railway through the Rockies. And when it鈥檚 done, nobody will be driving a last spike through the pipeline. At least, I hope not.
But to be fair, there is a glimmer of nation-building to a pipeline project that will, if approved, ship western oil to refineries in Montreal, Quebec City and Saint John, especially when you consider how happy New Brunswick Premier David Alward is with a project that will give a huge boost to his province鈥檚 petrochemical industry.
Alward is a far cry both geographically and politically from British Columbia鈥檚 Premier Christy Clark. When it comes to Alberta pipelines, Clark has generally had a less welcoming slogan in mind. For much of the past year, she has coldly rejected the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project to pump Alberta鈥檚 bitumen to the West Coast for shipment to Asia.
With a newly elected majority government under her belt, Clark is now warming up to the pipeline idea and is working with the Redford government to see if they can bridge their differences. But she has a long way to go to match the giddy excitement of New Brunswick.
Last Thursday, following TransCanada鈥檚 announcement that it will push ahead with the $12-billion project, Irving Oil said it will build a $300-million marine terminal in Saint John. Quebec has yet to embrace the Energy East pipeline, but Premier Pauline Marois says she鈥檚 keeping an open mind about a project that would provide oil for her refineries and jobs for Quebecers.
That鈥檚 one of the key difference between the two pipeline proposals. Unlike B.C., New Brunswick and Quebec clearly see how a pipeline will provide revenue and employment. And, unlike Northern Gateway, Energy East won鈥檛 cross pristine wilderness and is not facing lengthy legal fights from First Nations.
Not that opponents aren鈥檛 already attacking the TransCanada project as a hazard to the environment in general and the East Coast fishery in particular.
Then there鈥檚 the long list of supporters of the Energy East pipeline, which includes federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. Even Alberta鈥檚 political critics are offering rare applause for Redford, who has spearheaded the project as part of her 91原创 Energy Strategy.
Alberta is hoping to make money through the project, not only by earning royalties on every barrel put into the pipeline, but also by earning a profit on government-owned oil that reaches tidewater and collects world prices rather than the discounted price paid for Alberta鈥檚 landlocked products.
This is not to say that Alberta is happy with just getting one more pipeline. If it wants to move five million barrels of oil per day, it will need all the pipelines it can get, including Northern Gateway and Keystone XL.
If not, the province will be shipping even more oil by railway.
Finally, there鈥檚 something peculiarly 91原创 about a pipeline project that gets Alberta oil to tidewater not via a direct and relatively short route to the West Coast, but by shipping it much farther in the opposite direction via a patchwork of pipelines and provincial politicians.
The Energy East project is not the ideal pipeline. It鈥檚 the compromise pipeline.
In that way, I suppose it is something of a typically 91原创 nation-building project after all.
