NDP weasling out of pipeline promise
When the provincial NDP was campaigning for election, they made it very clear to voters their intention was to stop the Trans-Mountain pipeline expansion. Certainly the Green Party was in no doubt about its intentions regarding the matter.
Now that the NDP are in power, Premier John Horgan’s mandate letter to his Environment Minister softens that stance by stating, “Employ every tool available to defend B.C.’s interests in the face of the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, and the threat of a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic on our coast.”
No longer is the priority to stop Kinder Morgan. Now it is the mitigate the damage. This craven about-face is a betrayal of the worst kind. The fact that it is the Attorney General who is advising against a campaign to stop the pipeline expansion is a clear indication of the new government’s plan to muddy the waters in an initial step toward backing down on one of the key promises that got them elected.
To state that denying vital permits would result in expensive lawsuits is no doubt true, but that is one of the options to “employ every tool” in stopping this irresponsible and ultimately disastrous pipeline and shipping project.
The argument is beginning to sound like Justin Trudeau’s claim that it was better to save money by settling with Omar Khadr, than to fight him in the courts.
For Premier Horgan to try the same argument with respect to Kinder Morgan, is to weasel his way out of this commitment with the same flawed and shameful excuses. Since when did we put a price on morality?
The Green Party may be facing its greatest, possibly existential, test in considering whether to back the government on this issue. Its very survival may depend on the answer.
Tom Masters
Chemainus