Well, they ain’t where the elite go to eat.
It was a Calgarian who coined the term. I merely stole borrowed it.
Northern Gateway pipeline recommended for federal approval with conditions. 209 conditions, to be exact. The federal government still has to approve it.
Interesting development; I’m okay with the Gateway project going ahead with as many conditions as it takes to make it as safe as possible. It sounds like the opposition to it at this point is based on climate change.
It’s an environmental disaster waiting to happen. I don’t trust the corporation building it, I don’t trust this government to inspect it properly, and I don’t trust a single one of those conditions to be fulfilled properly.
The only good news is that the fight isn’t anywhere near over yet.
Are you serious? Have you noticed some of the issues we’ve had with transporting oil by rail lately? This isn’t an environmental disaster waiting to happen, it’s a pragmatic and safe way to help with international trade for resources that the world is clamoring for. Good for Alberta. Good for Canada. Good for our economy and GDP.
You are under the impression that people want Alberta to sell its oil. Many think oil production is evil and Canada isn’t evil, so we shouldn’t make it or sell it.
Realistically, they are bitter because they haven’t found a way to tax it for their benefit yet, IMHO.
Yes, of course I’m serious. Why, given the record of MMA this summer with the Lac Megantic disaster, would you think we can trust corporate and government oversight on an environmental issue of this magnitude?
You do realize that 1000s of oil tankers currently come through with billions of liters of oil through our eastern seaboard/St.Lawrence Seaway every year right ?
Take a look at the total length of pipelines in Canada. It isn’t that difficult to understand the risk is minimal by adding another.
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/mj03/ecoaudit.asp (ten year old data)
In this link it lists total pipelines as 580,000KM. The reason it differs from the wiki entry is it probably includes all the pipelines laid in oil fields themselves moving oil and gas to the main transmission lines. How often do you hear of issues? The site claims that 95% of all Canadian oil production moves through pipelines and yet the major issues in the news is about rail, which moves a far smaller percentage and per barrel shipped is far riskier.
Each one of these pipelines has been approved, built, maintained and monitored by the governments and companies that you say you don’t trust.
Respectfully, take your head out of your ass.
Sorry for the last comment. Got a little carried away.
Well, I guess the alternative is we could just all lie down and die. Making things incurs risk. It’s life.
You implicitly trust government and corporate oversight on safety and environmental issues of far greater and/or immediate danger all the time. Our cities and towns are literally networked, absolutely covered, with a system for delivering an invisible, poisonous and explosive gas which if released can blow a building up like a bomb, but I don’t see very many people calling for the natural gas service to be removed. Well, why not?
Nobody seems to have a great deal of trouble with the idea that corporations build huge, fuel-laden flying machines, stuff them full of passengers hundreds at a time, and then hurtle them though the air at speeds that defy the imagination and that would cause the aircraft to crumple up like a piece of paper if it hit anything. They’re kept safe by government and corporate oversight, and it works.
Far, far more people are put at risk by the dangers of food and drink contamination than could ever possibly be put at risk by all the oil pipelines in the world. Food safety is purely kept by government and corporate oversight - and yet it is spectacularly successful, so much so that on the once-in-a-blue-moon occasion it does fail it’s a huge news story.
Literally everything we do has an environmental impact; an oil pipeline is not significantly more risky than a HUNDRED other things I could name off the top of my head that we seem to happily live with.
Are there any Huron on here? I need help pronouncing the words of a particular Christmas Carol for my choir. You’ll never guess which one. 
Just a wild guess here, but does it begin with,
'Twas in the moon of wintertime, when all the birds had fled… 
I always liked that one.
I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with a post of yours as much as I agree with this one.
We trust government and corporations for safety on so many critical things (think about how many bridges you cross each day) - why indeed are oil pipelines so very different? My guess is it’s purely political. Oil is dirty and bad; oil companies are dirty and bad (well, I’ll give you that one); anybody who supports making money from oil is dirty and bad.
I’ll tell you something that you might not expect from a Calgarian/Albertan; I am very much in favour of reducing carbon emissions and doing something real about global warming/climate change. We have to start from where we actually are, though, not from Magic Land where everyone just stops driving cars tomorrow with nothing to replace them.
The price of public transit is going up here in Montreal, and there is also talk of cutting back on public transit services. For many years, I was so glad that, while other cities might’ve been stupid enough to cut back on public transit, Montreal never does this. And now it may happen here too. :mad:
I wouldn’t mind the price increase so much, if only they wouldn’t cut services!!!
There’s a great way to get great public transit services for cheap – get the federal and provincial governments to pay for it. Then it doesn’t cost us a penny!
(At least, I think that’s what Rob Ford was saying.)
But was he in a drunken stupor at the time?
Snow day.
I got 10 minutes down the un-ploughed highway and turned around. Screw that. One lane has well-defined ruts, and the other is snow-filled. I always said I’m not dying on that highway just for work.
I think I’ll take a nap now.
Regarding pipelines: there is a design and construction standard that must be followed. Here is a 132 page pdf copy of the standard. Not only are designers and constructors obliged to follow the code, but internal auditing and regulator oversight is mandatory.
You would not believe how regulated this industry is.
Here’s another pdf with the existing petroleum pipelines in Canada.
Tell me why another pipeline is a problem. Why are people against this Northern Gateway pipeline at all? Why weren’t they opposed to the other gazillion kilometers of pipelines? Why now? Why? What is the driving force? I’m pretty sure it’s the media in this country.
Otherwise why would any ordinary person care at all about another section of pipeline that’s being built. And being built under regulations that were unheard of back when we started constructing pipelines.
The Supreme Court has ruled Canada’s anti-prostitution laws are unconstitutional, and given parliament a year to re-draft 'em:
The court decision is attached to the article (I haven’t read it yet).
What do you think?
Since prostitution laws are effectively unenforced now, there was little point in having them. Laws that are only rarely and selectively used to harass the underprivileged are bad laws.