NORTHERN GATEWAY PIPELINE

O.K. first off the proposed Northern Northern Gateway Pipeline is a very long ways away from Woolwich Township. So sue me for my being geographically challenged. A week ago Friday (Dec. 20/13) the Waterloo Region Record carried this story "Review panel supports Northern Gateway pipeline, but with 209 conditions". My experience with support for a project with so called "conditions" involved is that they are essentially meaningless. Here in Elmira, Ontario "conditions" on Certificates of Approval or on Control Orders are mostly window dressing. They are supposed to alleviate and mitigate concerns simply by being put on paper. In other words the 209 conditions are only as good as the integrity and ethics of both the review panel and the proponent. Hence they could be significant or not at all.

From this far away and being basically retired it's very easy for me to throw stones and bemoan the incredible environmental risks involved. These risks are more than just tangible and possible; they are most likely probably going to happen. The more miles, the more volume, the more rivers and streams that are crossed accompanied with typical Canadian oversight and supervision environmentally means there will be spills, leaks and God help us out and out disasters eventually. Does Canada as a whole actually benefit that much from this project or is it the usual very few and very wealthy simply becoming more so? We, Canadians, have become skeptics but for very good reason. Our governments at all levels lie to us constantly and without shame. Then they act surprised when we tell them we no longer believe a word they say.