That Notion Is Insane

In July, The Joint Review Panel released its report on the Teck Mine in Northern Alberta. Andrew Nikiforuk writes:

Despite finding “significant adverse effects,” the panel declared that the mammoth project was in the public interest.

It added that the mine “would maximize the value of a product which is essential to everyday life” and provide income for Indigenous peoples of Alberta and Canada. Assuming, that is, oil prices reach $95 a barrel.

The price of oil is now $50 a barrel. Nonetheless, the push is on to approve the mine. And that, despite the wide reaching destruction that would be the consequence of opening the mine. The report pulls no punches about that destruction:

The project will destroy 292 square kilometres of the boreal forest, most of which is prime waterfowl habitat.

The report adds, “The project is likely to result in a significant adverse effect to biodiversity, primarily as a result of the loss of wetlands and old-growth forests.”

There will be a high to moderate loss of habitat for migratory birds whose populations are already dwindling.

According to the report, “more than 40 per cent of the old-growth forest within the regional study area will be removed and will not be recreated for more than 100 years after reclamation.”

In addition, the project “has the potential to make an incremental contribution to already existing significant adverse cumulative effects to woodland caribou.”

“Significant adverse effects” are expected for Roland Lake bison herd, a small population of disease-free genetically distinct wood bison.

In its first decade of operation the project will use about 105.2 million cubic metres of water — about 100 billion liters of water, or 100 small lakes.

The project will destroy or alter fish habitat for 1.5 million square metres in the Red Clay Creek and Big Creek watersheds, as well as the Athabasca River.

It will affect the traditional land use, rights and culture of 14 First Nations.

Total greenhouse emissions are estimated at 4.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year — about the amount generated by 400,000 homes or 800,000 passenger vehicles, or one large coal-fired power plant.

Given all this destruction, there are still those who argue that the mine is a good idea. That notion is insane.

Image: The New York Times

The Law Of Holes

A big decision awaits the Trudeau government. Will it approve the Teck Mine? Andrew Nikiforuk believes Trudeau should green light the project -- with stipulations. He writes:

Given Alberta’s belligerent confidence in holes, let’s agree. Canada’s federal cabinet should rubber stamp the permit for Teck’s oilsands mine.

At the same time, it must also declare that Canada will quantify and phase out $43 billion in annual fossil fuel subsidies as identified by the International Monetary Fund.

That means if the Teck mine fails, Canadian taxpayers will not support the boondoggle in any shape or form.

Alberta says it doesn’t want any federal handouts, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Now give the province what it wants. Let Nixon and Kenney defy the reality of low global oil prices and the commodity’s increasing volatility, and dig themselves a deeper hole to hell, unemployment and debt.

Every petrostate should have the freedom to build its own financial scaffold, knot its own fiscal noose and hang itself economically. It is what they do best.

Kenney has a really severe case of tunnel vision. And there's only one cure for it -- financial disaster:

Oil makes blind its dependents, regardless of their political hue. It encourages governments to overspend and undersave. It centralizes political power. It widens inequality. It replaces domestic taxes with hydrocarbon revenues, thereby breaking the bonds of representation. It erodes statecraft and rewards profligate government. The commodity’s busts and booms produce a vicious circle of bad policies that cement the state’s addiction to oil. It discourages diversification. In the end, it aggressively puts the needs of the oil and gas industry above everything else.

If Albertans wanted to regain their self-determination, they would not make digging the Teck mine their litmus test. But Kenney and company, despite the punishing downturn in prices, still don’t understand the Law of Holes.

The Law of Holes is elegant, proverbial and nearly a century old. It goes like this: If you find yourself in a moral and fiscal hole, you should stop digging.

And Alberta refuses to stop digging.

Image: Mindat.org