Pipelines will be the talk of the day, as the National Energy Board gave approval to Enbridge’s Line 3 replacement pipeline to the US late yesterday, and Candice Bergen wasted no time in putting out a press release demanding that the government approve it for the sake of jobs, and so on. Never mind that this pipeline doesn’t go to tidewater, so it won’t actually help Alberta get world price for its exports, but hey, it’s a pipeline and we are apparently in desperate need of them, except when we aren’t because they will encourage the further exploitation of oil and gas which won’t help us reach our climate goals, and all of that. But tidewater remains on everyone’s lips, as there is talk that the Northern Gateway pipeline may not be dead after all, and there is even talk that Enbridge is looking at alternate port facilities than the one that they proposed in their initial bid. There is a sense of a deadline, given that the conditional approval that the NEB gave Northern Gateway would expire by the end of this year, but it’s also hard to say that it was a real approval given the 200+ conditions that they attached to it, which may very well have been quite onerous – particularly any conditions that required First Nations buy-in when they are not keen to allow these pipelines over their territories, nor to have any terminus near the waterways that salmon depend upon for spawning, as that affects their local fisheries as well. That said, all of the agitation for Energy East will continue undaunted, no matter that it hasn’t even begun much of its environmental assessment process, nor the case for its “social licence” as Trudeau likes to call it – not that questions of process seem to matter to those who want it to happen yesterday.
Good reads:
- Two more Harper-era “tough on crime” laws were struck down in the BC Court of Appeal.
- Documents show that federal bureaucrats pushed back against Jason Kenney’s plans to try and bid for those French Mistral-class warships.
- Oh, look – Cheryl Gallant still can’t get her facts right.
- Despite their promise to do so, the government hasn’t made their move to open up the Board of Internal Economy.
- Lindsay Tedds finds interesting correlations between the changes in parental benefits and birth seasonality.
- Campbell Clark demonstrates his ignorance about civic literacy and institutional independence. Same goes for David Akin, for that matter.
- Tyler Dawson looks at the downside of evidence-based policy.
- Stephen Gordon looks at collective action, global action, and why bold moves like the Leap Manifesto misses the boat on those lessons.
- Jen Gerson reads Kellie Leitch to filth for her attempt to back away from the Barbaric Cultural Practices tip-line in the most disingenuous way possible.
Odds and ends:
The National Post figures out how tall our premiers are, with the recent election of the towering Brian Pallister.
Paul Martin’s portrait arrives in the Centre Block on May 11th.