Hi Onepath. Kinder Morgan spent years since 2012 trying to move that project forward, going through all the regulatory processes, plans, prep, dialogue etc (very costly) and finally had federal approval, but who filed in court to challenge that approval? Six First Nations, the City of Vancouver, and the City of Burnaby.
Which caused a bruhaha between BC and AB and the feds, since BC was also fighting it because it crossed their provincial border (they were looking for more revenues) and as a result Alberta wouldn't be able to ship more of its resources to market, so AB would lose its resource revenues as a result. BC was trying to take a piece of these resource revenues - beyond their legal revenues from easements, property taxes for the pipeline, etc that they would get - they were looking for something similar to royalties (even though BC didn't own the resource), just because the pipeline crossed their province, and this is contrary to the constitution since BC didn't own the resource, so of course AB balked at the enroachment.
In the pipeline case, the Court ultimately ruled that the "federal government failed to engage in a considered, meaningful two-way dialogue". So the federal government, under Trudeau, couldn't even manage the process properly under their own regulations. How much money did Kinder Morgan spend trying to move that project forward for years and that's what happens?
This should show how clear the rules and processes are (not): these companies engage very competent lawyers to read regulatory requirements, have many experts, professionals, etc, and after all that time, they still didn't get approval due to the fed itself not engaging. And no doubt, it was not clear how many more years they'd have to go through the process.
So after all that, the whole thing was kiboshed.
Then, because the Feds agreed with AB that the expansion was in the national interest, because ultimately it brings revenues into the federal government too, the feds bought the project for $4.5 billion from Kinder Morgan and said they'd do it themselves once they could get approval. Which I think was only a year later, no doubt having the power of the federal government behind them.
I can assure you, that if a company that is in the business of building projects like this, as opposed to the federal government which was not, had built the expansion, then the cost for the pipeline would have been much lower.
Kinder Morgan lost all the future revenues from the pipeline, and that would be many many decades of revenue.
And now, anybody shipping crude on that pipeline will be paying fees to do so. They are normally priced so that the entity that owns the pipeline earns back their capital (the cost of the pipeline) over time plus a rate of return on that capital. Ie/to recoup their money plus a return. Which the federal government also would be doing with the shippers. So Suncor, CNQ, etc are not getting a free ride here, they pay for every cubic meter they ship on the pipeline. And I can also pretty much guarantee that they'd rather be dealing with Kinder Morgan, who knows the business, as opposed to the federal government. And yes, nobody is 'grateful' - they just want clear rules and processes so they can decide whether a project will be economic and based on that, whether they should proceed. Instead, they get shifting political tides, provincial barriers, and feds who keep changing the rules, plus makes rules that are often vague and subject to political process. Since many multiple millions of dollars are involved, companies no longer want to commit the capital to these big projects because the political risk (of rules changing, political interference, etc) is too high. And people are very, very tired of it.
There was no windfall, the whole thing was a disaster. They managed to get the pipeline built, but what a cluster.
So I totally understand why some people may be looking for someone who might work with them, as opposed to putting up roadblocks on projects that cross a provincial border. And it's not even that crazy if you look at the history of the BNAA, Hudson's Bay Company & Rupert's land, the Tories, the US population that moved to what is now Canada, etc.
I always think of Canada as a kinder, gentler western democracy so would like it to stand. But it is not working very well. And the Americans are not our enemy, they are our friends and biggest trading partner and we should be able to have a dialogue with them, even if the politicians don't like how everything was first presented to them. Then, AFTER THAT, Canada might need to be 'elbows up', depending. But people who try to have a dialogue with them now have been called traitors or anti-Canadian, and that is not only false, it's a manipulation. And we need to ask ourselves, who is trying to manipulate us and why.
Cheers |
