Interview on the Keystone XL PipelineAlberta Premier Jason Kenney announced on March 30 that "shovels are in the ground" for the Keystone XL pipeline as of 6:00 am that morning. TC Energy (formerly TransCanada Pipelines), Kenney said, had decided to go ahead with the project after the provincial government agreed to buy a $1.5 billion equity stake in the project, as well as to a $6 billion loan guarantee. This decision was made after investors could not be found for such a risky venture.[1] Alberta will sell its stake in the company back to TC Energy if and when oil is flowing. That much is known but the terms and conditions are confidential. Albertans are in the dark about what has been agreed upon, but media reports indicated that the equity stake will cover construction costs for 2020.
Workers' Forum interviewed pipeline worker André Vachon about the announcement. Workers' Forum: What do you make of Jason Kenney's announcement about construction of the Keystone XL. André Vachon: Well the idea of "so many people" going to work on a new pipeline in the midst of a pandemic is outrageous, showing so little regard for our health and safety. We are also seeing the consequences of such decisions now at the Cargill meat packing plant, as well as at the Kearl Lake Oil Sands project. It is basically impossible to social distance in pipeline work. The most that could be done is some ground clearing. Then workers will have to find accommodation, either renting rooms in homes or in hotels or motels, again violating social distancing, as well as that workers travel to the site by bus. But as it turns out, the announcement is just as fraudulent as it is indifferent to our well-being. Pipeliners immediately questioned the claim that construction had begun, as not a single job for the pipeline has been posted anywhere, and no contractors are hiring. What's more, every worker in the oil and gas industry knows that pipeline construction shuts down during spring break-up, when road bans are in effect making it impossible to move heavy equipment. Pipeline construction simply doesn't take place in the spring in Alberta when the ground is still too wet. My union, the Operating Engineers, immediately reported that construction on the Saskatchewan section of the pipeline won't begin until 2021. I understand that a few days after this announcement, Kenney "clarified" that there were about 100 workers doing some preliminary work in Montana. Even that isn't going to happen, as a judge in Montana ruled on April 15 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to adequately consider effects of the Keystone XL pipeline and its construction on endangered species as it traverses rivers and streams. So TC Energy no longer has a permit to move ahead on Montana. WF: Kenney has also stated that he is hoping to get the economy moving again by the end of May. AV: Well that is about when the road ban would be lifted in a normal year. But we are half way through April and there is no spring thaw yet, so it will be much later, and pipeline construction almost never takes place at that time of year anyway, and especially this year when the weather has been so cold. He clearly is pushing for "business as usual" as opposed to putting our health first. WF: Kenney also stated that he had talked to the Governors of Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska and that they, as well as TC Energy, had assured him that they would be taking all precautions necessary to protect workers and communities. AV: Well that is pretty ripe, because I know South Dakota and Nebraska were among the last holdouts, they didn't want to shut anything down, just carry on business as usual and take no precautions to protect the people against COVID-19. So to suggest that they are going to look after the workers is a complete fraud. Really what it looks like is that the Alberta government is actually going to pay for TC Energy to build the pipeline through the U.S. this year. Those are the jobs he is talking about, which put the U.S. workers at risk. WF: TC Energy says there will be 1,400 jobs in Canada to build the pipeline. Can you comment? AV: That figure sounds realistic. But it is important to know what is meant by a "job." It doesn't mean two years of work. Contractors bid to complete a section of the pipeline, and then we are hired for that job, to complete that section, which usually takes a maximum of three months, during which we work six and sometimes seven days a week, 10 or 11 hours a day. Then comes a long period of unemployment. This bragging up of the benefits of pipeline construction job-wise is always overblown. It is part of the boom and bust cycles that are inherent to our industry. For Kenney to tout pipeline construction jobs as bringing prosperity to Albertans is nonsense.
As building trades workers, our skills are not confined to building pipelines. Just imagine the public enterprise which $6.5 billion could generate to provide a new direction for the economy, instead of giving it to a global monopoly for a risky venture. There are alternatives. For example Alberta could invest in a public enterprise to make N95 masks, which are not produced in Canada even though they are made from polypropylene, a petrochemical product. Or the much-needed public lab which the Kenney government cancelled. We could be constructing a publicly-owned enterprise to make vaccines. Public enterprise to manufacture such products would ensure security of supply for Canada and a source of revenue for the public treasury. An urgent need -- perhaps the most urgent -- is modern culturally appropriate housing on the First Nations reserves and Metis settlements, which is appalling in Alberta, as well as in cities for the urban Indigenous population. The $7.5 billion in equity and loan guarantees could go a long way if it is the people of Alberta who decide how to spend it. We could be building those enterprises to benefit Canadians, not a pipeline for the benefit of TC Energy, the U.S. war machine and to destroy the economies of countries who don't submit to the U.S. WF: Thank you very much. Note1. See TML
Weekly Supplement,
Alberta Government's $7.5 Billion Energy
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Kenney
claimed that 520 kilometers of pipeline in two Canadian spreads would
be built in 2020, as well as several spreads in the U.S. "For so many
of the people who've been laid off in the oil field sector right now,
they will have an opportunity to work for TC Energy, its contractors.
For the little hotels and at least some of the restaurants
that can operate along the route, they will have business..."
Alberta
has to stop being dependent on shipping oil to the U.S. to fuel the war
economy and war machine. We want to make Canada a zone for peace, so a
new direction is needed. Of course no one ever asks us. Why should
workers be blackmailed that either we support this direction, which we
already know doesn't provide security, or it's
nothing, no work? And to top it off billions of dollars is handed over
to TC Energy, which even dropped Canada from its name "to reflect the
expansion of its business beyond Canada to the United States."