Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the approval of two pipeline projects. The Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain and Line 3 now have the go ahead after working out the kinks for several months, while the Northern Gateway was denied.
Each of the new pipelines will take approximately 3 years to complete, and will up Canada’s oil exports by one million barrels each day.
Although some activists are concerned over potential environmental impacts.
Matt Farrell is a politics professor at Fanshawe College. He acknowledges that there are always risks when working with oil.
“Any time that you’re moving this big liquid around there’s the potential to spill. When you’re building the pipelines, when you’re moving them. The big spills, the really dangerous ones, those can be incredibly damaging to what is a fragile ecosystem.”
While there are risks associated with the environment, these two projects could mean good news for Canada’s economy. They will bring many new trades related jobs to Canadians.
Farrell says it’s difficult to compare the pros and cons for the environment and economy, so the different activists may clash heads.
“We can create jobs, we can grow the economy and we can move product and get a product to market. But at the same time we’re damaging the ecosystem in a way that they might not be able to recover from. So the whole process of assigning benefit and cost to these things, they don’t even agree on that.”
In addition to environmentalists and economists scuffling over their disagreements, other political parties are having their say against the Liberals decisions. The Conservatives and NDPs are displaying their unhappiness with Trudeau for different reasons.
Farrell adds this could actually be a good sign.
“You’ve got to wonder, if the people on both sides are mad at you, maybe you’re doing okay. So I think from a Trudeau standpoint, he’s probably happy with that reaction. He hasn’t alienated anybody, but he’s upset everybody.”
The prime minister also left the door open to more pipeline approvals, saying each project would be examined on its merits.