Pipelines and Protest

Last weekend, in Vancouver approximately 5,000 people marched in protest to Kinder-Morgan pipeline expansion.  As was noted in numerous releases including the CBC, the people gathered in support of First Nation peoples who are opposed to any additional capacity for the pipeline  and the resultant dangers to both the interior and to the coast line of British Columbia.  There was a much smaller gathering of people who are in favour of the expansion. This debate will go on for some time. No matter what the final outcome is -there will be some who will never agree.

It seems to me that that part of the problem is the fundamental dishonesty (or at least the leaving out of pertinent facts)  by both sides. We would be all better served if people admitted that there are legitimate concerns on both sides. The possibility that a decision could be reached that most people could live with increases if we understand all of the facts.

Of course if there is three times as much oil to be shipped through pipelines, across extraordinarily beautiful mountains and valleys - there is an equally increased risk that something will go wrong. There are just too many stories of pipelines developing cracks or breaks. There will be leaks not because the managers of the project are bad people or that the welders are incompetent but because with that much pipe - there will be failures. We know that such projects disrupt the natural movement of animals and no matter what attempts are made to create corridors, the animals will be affected. We know that if there are three times as many freighters in the straits around Vancouver that something bad will eventually happen and when it does it could be catastrophic for generations. Again it is not a matter of incompetence or being evil - technology and humans fail. For the federal government or for the oil industry to even suggest that the risks are not substantial is absurd. They would be better off to admit the risks and then start discussing ways of mitigating them.

On the other hand, the protesters are at the very least being a bit disingenuous when arguing that they are protesting along with and on behalf of First Nations. It needs to recognized that a number of First Nations along the pipeline route as well as number of communities who are active in resource extraction have indicated support for the expanded pipeline; other communities are in negotiations with Kinder-Morgan.

The protesters are also either impossibly naive or wilfully avoiding the realities of their lives. I would find the protest so much more meaningful if they, the protesters, acknowledged that most of them got to the protest via vehicles powered by a petroleum product, that in fact their vehicles are at least in part made with materials derived from petroleum products as are their clothes, their iPhones, tablets and water bottles. In fact a significant percentage of what they touch and use each day is comprised at least in part of a derivative of petroleum. Their food, their furnishings, their very life style is only possible because of petroleum. The argument that there cannot be any increase in the amount of oil that reaches the BC coast - without appreciating that we need to use that oil is a bit childish.

I would agree without hesitation that the pipeline is a bad idea. The risk to the coast or the interior is just far too great. But if we continue to demand petroleum products to maintain our life style, it strikes me that it is probably hard to argue that we should have oil but that no one else should.  It is equally as difficult to argue that oil production should only exist for our direct needs and that oil production companies are not allowed an effective economy of scale.

We need to find solutions - but first we need to be honest with ourselves and those on the other side.

Here We Go Again

I like living in BC. The weather is less extreme than in Ontario, the people are nice and there seems to be enough to keep me as busy as I want to be. But much to the surprise of some of my new friends, I still miss Ontario. There is so much about that province that is interesting and attractive to me. There are occasions when I think about moving back there. But right now, there is a large part of me that is supremely thankful that I am not living in Ontario this year. I do not think that I could face the next few months of angst and political debate over the future of that province with Doug Ford now being the elected leader of the Progressive Conservatives and potentially the next premier of the province.

I suspect that three years ago many of the observers of the political scene in Ontario would have publically opined the absurdity of anyone as poorly informed as to economics as Doug Ford having a chance of either becoming leader of a major party or to become premier. However the recent events in the USA have clearly demonstrated that one does not need to have any understanding of economics or a grasp of the complex issues of the day to become a leader. In fact it almost appears as such gaps in knowledge are an asset. Ford, and those who voted for him, seem to believe that because he has attracted a solid constituent base in a corner of the Toronto suburbs, that he has the potential to being attractive to the voters of Ontario. And they might be right.

In 1995 Mike Harris of the PC was elected Premier on Ontario. He was elected because he pandered to the voters in the 905 area code area who were afraid of rising taxes and other perceived threats against their status quo. He got elected because he argued that their taxes could be reduced if we only stopped wasting money on salaries of a bloated civil service and on unnecessary social programs. Ontario suffered through two terms of Harris. I suspect that Ontario may be ripe for another era of reduced services for the promise of reduced taxes.

Ontarians may be with good cause tired of the present government. They like all other governments before them have not come close to delivering the promised utopia. And there have been more than enough scandals to exhaust the public's tolerance. The NDP appear to be a party with limited direction and even less passion; for so many voters in Ontario, Ford and his highly fractured, disorganized and inexperienced party may be the best choice to run the province.

Within popular culture it is sometimes suggested that Henry II as he was pondering what to do with the Archbishop of Canterbury said "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" I sort of wish that Henry or anyone else would wonder out loud "Will no one rid us of these silly want-to-be politician who will do far more harm than good?"

I do not wish any ill upon Mr. Ford - I just want him and others like him to go away or at the very least stop promising to cut taxes, increase spending and making everyone who deserves it - to become better off.

Good News - Bad News

The good news is that at least in at least one First Nation community in Northern Ontario, as of a few days ago, residents no longer have to boil their drinking water. And that really is good news. However attached this achievements is a long list of bad news items. Some of them are:

1)It  took 14 years to correct this situation. For those who have grown up with municipally treated water, water than generally is very safe to drink (Walkertown, Ontario being the exception), it is almost inconceivable that anyone in Canada, this highly developed nation, would have to boil their water before it is safe to drink. To make the news that one community now has safe drinking water even less exciting - according an article in the Huffington Post of a year ago, there are another 140 First Nation communities that are under some sort of boil water advisory.  

2) The cost of ensuring that Slate Falls which is about 550 kilometres north of Thunder Bay has safe drinking water was 11.6 million dollars (CBC). The Canadian government has budgeted another 172.5 million dollars in the next few years to ensure that other First Nation communities have access to safe water. If Slate Falls is any example - the amount of money budgeted will not be enough to do the job.

3) There are only about 300 people living in Skate Falls. Which means that the Government of Canada spent just under $39,000 per person to ensure that they have safe water. One of course, assumes that the treatment plant will be in operation for many, many years and therefore the costs per person will drop down dramatically. One has to wonder if it would have been more economical to determine why their water source so far away from almost anywhere was so polluted - and then to fix that problem.

There is no doubt that Canada has a responsibility to ensure that all of its citizens have the right to safe drinking water. There should never be a question as to whether or not we can afford it. We, as a country, are morally obliged to do whatever is required to make this happen as soon as possible. Having said that, I think that we, as a country, are also obliged to try to do things that make sense. In the case of Slate Falls, part of the problem was that their old system could not deal with the  E. coli and other contaminants. While the cynic in me doubts it - and I can find no proof that someone did, surely someone in some sort of official capacity looked for the source of these bacteria and contaminants.

It is to Canada's shame that we as a nation have been able to do so little to at least alleviate the long terms effects of Europeans immigrating to Canada starting in the 1600s. While many of the effects were unpredictable, or at least deemed to be worth it, the effects are well known and long standing. There is no way in which Canada could ever return the land back the way it was 400 years ago - but surely there is a way to fix the obvious problems such as poor drinking water in our northern communities. Surely it should not take 14 years to do so.

Missed the Olympics - Again Part 2

I was talking to a friend the other day about the Olympics and the fact that I found it more than a little absurd that the world could spend up to 50 billion dollars on a two week celebration of elite sports while each day hundreds of people were dying in Syria. The person I was chatting to suggested that I was comparing apples to oranges, that there was really very little correlation between how much a country spends on sports as compared to whether or not they contribute to world peace or try to do something to stop people from starving.

I disagree. I think there is a direct link between how much money we spend on assisting those countries who are less able to function well and how much we spend within our country to support what some refer to as our cultural activities.  Clearly a country that can (or its individual citizens can) devote resources to supporting its elite athletes will have less money to devote to its international humanitarian aid . Living in a intergenerational era where reduced taxes are the ideal - there is clearly not enough money to do either well.  I think the question that needs to be addressed is what are our priorities?

 

The argument that is sometimes made (as it certainly was by a number of my students in some of the classes I taught at college) is that we as a country do not have enough money to do everything; that we should focus helping people inside Canada; that people from other parts of the world cannot and should not be our priority.  This argument might have a slight tinge of truth if there was any sign of any political will to deal with the issues of poverty, inequity of education and opportunity or the myriad of other issues that prevents Canadians from achieving their potential. But there are few indications that any political party that is, or has realistic dreams of becoming the ruling party will focus on solving those problems. Instead we accept promises of someone doing something in the future in exchange for promises to make our lives better in the short term.

While I hope I will always be uncomfortable in a world that puts personal satisfaction and comfort ahead of assisting  others, I would find it a bit more tolerable if  people would just be honest. If people could stop pretending that they gave a damn about the children and their families in sub-Saharan Africa or in parts of Central or South America or in the mindless ( and mind boggling)  chaos of the Middle East; if we could just admit that ensuring that the services we deemed to be necessary (like cheap cable and cell phone/internet rates) are the appropriate priorities of the government; that what we really want are more service for us and people like us (and that others pay higher taxes); if we could just admit that we are basically just selfish - it is not that I would be happy, but at least I would understand.

It is the hypocritical responses that drive me to toss and turn each night, of having endless arguments with myself about what needs to be said or done.  It is our seemingly endless capacity to lie to ourselves, to pretend that we are doing all that we can while doing as little as possible that sometimes paralyses  my thoughts.

Supporting elite athletes and eradicating hunger both within Canada and the rest of the world may not be mutually exclusive goals.  But they always will appear so unless we are honest with ourselves and each other.

Missed the Olympics - Again

The Olympics are over and I didn't see a single minute of the action. I do not think that I am the only Canadian who missed the whole two week celebration of  winter sports. In fact, I wonder if we could divide Canadians into three basic groups: One group is comprised of individuals who will watch the Olympics with some devotion - cancelling other activities so that they don't miss a single game or performance. The second group will watch parts of the Olympics - perhaps the finals in hockey, curling any sport where a Canadian has a chance of getting a medal or by accident if they are in a sports bar. The third group is comprised of those Canadians who do not watch the Olympics and in fact studiously avoid any mention of them. While like all crude groupings, there are numerous variations and qualifications to belonging to an individual group, let me be clear - I clearly chose to belong to the third category.

I could excuse my lack of any patriotic fever or even athletic interest in the Olympics due to the fact that I have neither cable or a satellite dish, but that would be disingenuous.  I do have internet. I could have turned on the computer and watched the full CBC coverage on my computer monitor. I could have gone to a friend's house or to a sports bar. I chose not to because  I had a list of things to do - all of which were more important to me than watching someone I do not know  glide on ice or fly down some slippery slope. It is not that I do not respect and sometimes even admire those athletes who devote a decade or two to perfecting their skills to the point that they can compete internationally. I admire their dedication and commitment to a single activity, I admire the countless hundreds and hundreds of hours that they (and their parents) have spent on ski slopes or in cold arenas honing their skills. For so many of those athletes, they know that all of their work will not make them rich (hockey players and perhaps figure skaters excepted), they compete for the sheer joy of it. Or at least I assume that is why they work so hard  as I have never excelled at any of the winter (or summer for that matter) sports.

For some viewers I understand that it is exciting to cheer on a team that they have some real or imagined affection or allegiance to. I understand that it is possible to cheer on someone that the viewer does not know, will never meet but comes from the same country. I understand that it could be frustrating to see other countries accumulate medals in specific sports that some Canadians think we should automatically or at least easily win (thus the bi-yearly editorials expressing angst at the lack of public funding for elite athletes) but I cannot understand being consumed by the whole show - to that we are oblivious to all else that is going on around us.

For the individuals who were competing  in South Korea and got to march in either the opening or closing ceremonies - well done. For most of them it may be the high point of their lives. They worked hard, sacrificed a great deal and they should feel good about themselves.

 For the 500 hundred, including 120 children (Independent)  who were killed this week in Eastern Gouta, a suburb of the Damascus, Syria  because of air strikes, saying I am sorry seems to be just not enough.  In a world where on one hand we can spend  billions and billions of dollars celebrating sport  (Forbes estimates total cost of 50 billion was spent on the 2018 Olympics) but on the other hand we cannot figure out how to protect blameless victims of war perpetuated by outside forces - I am not at all sure that any of us should feel pride in our countries.