Harper’s pipeline ‘about-face’ is anything but

Green Party leader Elizabeth May says Stephen Harper has done an “about-face” on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. She is overly optimistic.

The federal government is still pushing for a pipeline to carry crude oil from the Alberta oilsands to the British Columbia coast. It has still rigged the deck to make sure this pipeline will get regulatory approval. And it is still using its tax department to harass environmentalists critical of the scheme.

All that has changed is the language. The federal Conservatives no longer demonize pipeline opponents as foreign stooges — at least in public.

Nor do they insist, as the prime minister once did, that Northern Gateway is essential to Canada’s economic well-being.

Instead, as Harper did in Vancouver on Tuesday, the government presents itself as benevolently neutral, determined to do whatever the scientists and experts recommend.

“Decisions on these kinds of projects are made through an independent evaluation conducted by scientists into the economic costs and risks that are associated with the project,” Harper told reporters. “That’s how we conduct our business.”

Two things should be noted about this remarkable statement.

First, the prime minister spoke only of economic costs and benefits associated with the Northern Gateway pipeline. He didn’t address the environmental impact, which is the issue seizing critics.

Second, his statement — on any number of levels — just isn’t true.

This is not a government that welcomes science.

It has terminated scientific programs aimed at monitoring climate change just because it doesn’t like their conclusions.

It has muzzled its own scientists from discussing their findings publicly, particularly when these findings contradict government plans to eliminate environmental laws and regulations.

It has hobbled economic and social research by killing Statistics Canada’s mandatory long-form census.

It has refused to accept scientific evidence that shows violent crime is on the decrease, since doing so might cast doubt on its law-and-order agenda.

Instead, it insists that more murders and assaults are occurring but that no one is reporting them.

So, no. This is not an evidence-based government.

And in the case of the oilsands pipeline, the Harper Conservatives are leaving nothing to chance.

Given the narrowness of its mandate — a mandate set by government — the National Energy Board panel charged with evaluating the Northern Gateway plan is almost sure to approve it.

The panel is not empowered to look into the central issue, which is Ottawa’s decision to let oil tankers ply B.C.’s hazardous coastline. Nor is it empowered to examine the environmental impact of the Alberta oilsands that provide the pipeline’s oil.

It is looking at the pipeline only. And pipelines, properly constructed, are generally safe.

Indeed, by changing the law so that cabinet — in the unlikely event of a decision against the pipeline — can override the energy board, Harper has done himself no favours.

He has made the lines of responsibility, which in classic Canadian fashion had been deliberately blurred, crystal clear.

This pipeline is going to be approved — and quickly — not because a bunch of boffins think it’s a sound idea but because Stephen Harper’s Conservative government wants the project approved. Period.

He can insist, as he did Tuesday, that his cabinet is made up of ideologically neutral social scientists determined to follow the evidence wherever it leads. But it’s far too late for that. We’ve all seen these guys in action.

Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Thomas Walkom