Protest outside the Vancouver offices of the federal Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, March 18,
2021.
Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver have proved what
many suspected from the beginning: the Trudeau government purchase of
Trans Mountain (TM) pipeline and the rights to construct a twin
pipeline (TMEP) were from the get-go schemes to pay the rich and
further integrate Alberta heavy oil into the
U.S. war economy.
The researchers write: "The Government of Canada has provided no
publicly accessible evaluation of its decision to purchase TM and build
TMEP. Given the magnitude of the public expenditure ($4.4 billion to
purchase TM from Kinder Morgan and the currently estimated $12.6
billion cost to build TMEP), the failure to provide a public
evaluation is contrary to accepted principles of public accountability."
The SFU researchers write in conclusion:
"Our
financial impact analysis concludes that escalating capital costs, new
climate change policies, and construction delays will negatively impact
the financial viability of TMEP. The Government of Canada's purchase of
TM, completion of TMEP, and eventual divestment of the pipeline system
will result in a net financial loss to the federal
government (and to taxpayers) between $2.1 billion and $6.9 billion.
"... Our full project BCA (Benefit Cost Analysis) concludes that the
decision to approve and build TMEP will result in a net cost to Canada
under base case assumptions of $11.9 billion. The net cost estimates
range between $8.3 billion and $18.5 billion and there is no likely
scenario in which TMEP will generate a net benefit to
Canada.
"... The project completion BCA, which assesses the benefits and
cost of completing the partially built TMEP by omitting sunk costs,
shows that completing construction of TMEP will result in net cost to
Canada between $3.2 billion and $13.3 billion. Therefore, continuing construction of TMEP is not in Canada's public interest and TMEP
should be shelved."
This article was published in
April 12, 2021 - No. 27
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08273.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
