Enbridge`s Northern Gateway Pipeline Project Is Dead, Reason Number 1, Oil Tanker Wrecks and Explosions

Breaking News not reported in Canada`s Mainstream Media.....May 29th 2014


998 tonne oil tanker has exploded today off the coast of Japan..

Fortunately the tanker had just unloaded it`s oil cargo...

_______________________


One missing after explosion on Japan oil tanker


"Television footage showed the approximately 80-metre ship listing heavily as at least two jets doused the badly-charred centre of the vessel.
Himeji port is one of a number that sit along the Inland Seto Sea coast, where there are numerous pockets of heavy industry.
The city itself is a popular tourist destination, and is home to one of Japan's finest feudal castles."




http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/oil-tanker-listing-off-japan-after-explosion


______________________________

No matter what Stephen Harper, Greg Rickford, Janet Holder and Enbridge say...

Accidents happen and British Columbia`s pristine wildlife filled northern coastline is not for sale, we will not allow Enbridge and CAPP to roll the dice and gamble with our soul, our heritage, our world heritage tourist site, the home of the Haisla Nation, ...The land of Haida Gwaii, Great Bear rainforest, home of the spirit bear, the mighty orca, ....A place where delicacies from the sea are abundant and permanently sustainable...

Wild salmon, herring and vast kelp forests....

You Stephen Harper will never get social license to build Enbridge` northern gateway...There will be court battles for decades, any attempt by Enbridge, or contractors to build the pipeline, any federal force brought in to pave the way for construction will be met with a human wall of resistance, met with civil disobedience and more, whatever it takes...

Enough is enough, the third most dangerous waterway in the world, hurricane alley, twists and turns...800 river and streams for the land crossing, headwaters of nearly every major salmon producing river threatened....

And for what, for greedy oil companies to profit even more...

"If you want peace prepare for war"

We are prepared for war, you don`t have enough jails or guns Stephen Harper...

Stephen Harper, your sorry ass will be punted from office very soon, well before the courts have ruled, no more power, no more majority, so disgusted the Canadian public is with you Stephen Harper the people in riding rich Ontario would rather vote back in a corrupt, useless Ontario provincial Liberal Government than grant power to anyone or anything with the name Conservative..



This inevitable disaster will not be permitted to happen...

______________________________-




577, The Unluckiest Number,Ten years out. The Enbridge pipeline disaster

 Written by Grant G

                         Number 577, The Unluckiest Number

The 10 year anniversary next month of the Bengal Lion Star tragedy and I had to come to ground zero to see for myself, perhaps it was a mistake to come here, from what I have seen i`m way too angry to cry and too sad for fury, in fact I almost have that peaceful easy feeling.

How I miss my dad`s analytical explanation and mom`s hope springs eternal talks, yet I fear that neither parent could explain away this tragedy, 10 years later, 10 years of black death extending it`s reach.


Looking around by boat off Banks island, one mile from ground zero the feeling is of the surreal, trees are still green but any ocean life or bird activity is eerily quiet, no salmon fry swimming , no squawking gulls just silence, for tens of miles in every direction the great kelp forests are gone, who gave us permission to gamble and lose what we didn`t own and what we could never replace, sacrificing little Fish lake was a horrid environmental mistake, imagine deliberately destroying a huge natural watershed for trinkets of gold, thousands of migrating birds executed for the mere sin of just landing, how many species of frogs or insects still get near or in the lake only to perish or leave half dead, what insanity compels man to convert clear clean water into a poisonous tailing lake devoid of life, but as horrible as the deliberate execution of little Fish lake, the scale of the Bengal Lion Star oil spill off Banks island in Hecate Strait is beyond compare, how is it that my only terms of reference in attempting to describe the aftermath is that of dead zones, in a way its very peaceful, no eternal battle for life here, those days are long gone.



Only if I could turn back the clock, why did it happen, the Bengal Lion Star should not have went out, a deep pacific low moving in, was the Captain pressured to leave, why why why, even with two large commercial tug boats assisting wasn`t going to stop the wreck, maybe if there were extra support tugs who knows but when lead tug boat Kitimat queen capsized in heavy seas nothing was going to stop the massive oil carrier from grounding on White jagged rocks that stormy (March 14, 2017) night, 30 to 40 foot high waves capped with fury pounded the Bengal Lion Star on unforgiving rocks, section after section burst like watermelons, spewing millions of gallons of tar sand oil, the 3rd largest oil spill in the world, maybe if the oil containment teams had gotten out here sooner but with storm force winds blowing for 2 days along with extreme high and low tides, my god, oil sprayed the shore line high on exposed rocks and layered thick into the lowest tidal zones, mountains of Alberta bitumen flowing in deep water, who could imagine the oil and heavy sheen would have spread 50 miles in different directions over 2 days, coves, bays, narrow channels coated in black death,  as far as I can look in any direction this paradise is dead, who knows what the bird count will ultimately be, millions of direct bird deaths with millions more that died in subsequent migrations, birds all along the coast found dead, birds with clear signs of contact with heavy oil, the natural engine in this migration route blasted with Alberta crude, indeed, the scale of the Bengal Lion Star oil spill can`t be measured in millions of oiled birds or the 40 distinct salmon runs that were decimated and or all of British Columbia`s wild salmon teetering on extinction, the sea lions, otters, coastal bears, eagles, ferrets, no salmon spawning led one extinction into another, we broke nature`s bond, too many dead for one`s heart to count, oil stained carcasses feed other animals that ultimately die too, black oil`s death-grip reaches on and on, only with time, generational time, perhaps millenia before this area recovers, can it recover, and for what, to spill another tanker of crude.

I don`t what is harder to take, the fragile existence of a few northern runs of salmon and southern Sockeye, it`s almost like the cycle of life has been thrown out, this large swath of nature, thousands of square miles destroyed forever, well at least for my lifetime, perhaps 6 or 7 generations before this area will become fertile again but with continued oil tanker traffic when will black death strike again, even if the shell fish recover, even if herring spawns again, the  Orca will never be seen again, the birthing females were first to die then the small adolescent Orca perished, 2 adult males are all that is left of the species, maybe mankind should have figured out how to start a new Orca pod before destroying the only one we had, unique species and west coast wildlife gone, in a blink, for all time, gone, why didn`t we learn from the Valdez disaster, there is no going back, First Nations have mourned, the northern and island tourism industries decimated, maybe I should have fought harder against the National review 15 years ago, 10 years out from this disaster and Hecate Strait still lay mortally wounded, you can still smell crude oil, I can only think of Charlton Heston`s Planet of the Apes movie when he sees New York`s Statue of Liberty and realizes that it was mankind itself that burned mother nature, this area is no longer worth fighting for, top scientists are mostly in agreement that outside of decades of time there is nothing on scale that can be done to remediate the damage.

It appears the only ones left fighting about the Bengal Lion Star are the litigants, where have we seen this picture before, the Exxon Valdez law suit still lingers unpaid(40 years later), the Liberian registered Bengal Lion Star oil tanker had but minimum insurance, $200 million dollars yet the insurance has been contested,  Bengal Lion Star hadn`t paid premiums in 2 years, Honshu commercial carrier insurance company have claimed bankruptcy, between the Province and Ottawa more than $14.9 billion has been spent on clean-up and species mitigation, First Nations, affected business`s and local town`s folk have law suits filed worth more than $15 billion dollars, everyone suing and litigating for compensation on something no one can return, Enbridge pipeline inc washes their hands of any responsibility, Shell, Exxon Mobile and the Chinese petroleum company are all pointing fingers at each other, owners of the Bengal Lion Star blame the escort tug company, tug company blames act of god and file for bankruptcy, how long will these trials go on and who will ultimately pay, what price, what price to return nature to the way it was, all this pain to secure dirty Alberta crude oil to China, oil use falls for the last 7 years, a dying product needing desperate tyrants, we sold out nature on British Columbia`s wild west coast for a handful of pesos, how can ancient dregs of plants take so much away from present and future life cycles, I can`t shed tears anymore, my life, my personal battles, millions of wasted words warning of potential harm or should I say risk management, I `m too old to repeat the warnings and too tired to muster passion, the battle for Haida Gwaii is over.

Even the First Nation`s blockade attempting to stop the very first oil tanker, 8 First Nations elders gave their life that day, not near enough pressure to stop that massive Vessel, oil tanker Shell diamond and its Canadian naval escort, dugout canoe versus high-speed frigate, symbolic but futile, the time to stop Enbridge was before it started, certainly native voices on opening day weren`t going to stop it, you can`t stop $5 billion dollars spent, never-the-less, January 13/2016 was the day the first super tanker left Kitimat, thousands of small protest vessels, nothing, not even Greenpeace and Suzuki foundation`s concentrated efforts could stop the Stephen Harper Federal Conservatives and the Gordon Campbell Christy Clark B.C. Liberal administration from rubber stamping this project from the git-go, proceeding at full speed behind closed doors, no matter how much evidence anti pipeline opponents, scientists, biologists and environmentalists put forward they were all but ignored, the NDP government vowed to stop the completion of Enbridge if they were elected in 2013, was the fix in, too much money invested to stop, too big to fail, needed economic growth, jobs jobs jobs, yes I heard everyone of those excuses justifying the completion of Enbridge, what jobs, imported foreign workers building the pipeline and 120 permanent after construction jobs, was it worth it.

Madness, I knew something really big would happen, not the 5000 barrels that spilt into the Skeena river, not the 50,000 barrels dumped at the port of Kitimat but something epic, mathematicians also knew it was coming, not if a big spill would happen but when a spill would happen, I can still hear Christy Clark talk about risk management, the best corporate spinners hired to say we can manage the risk, how come no one asked how do we manage armageddon, how do we clean up, how do we create more Orca, how do you bring back thousands of square miles from the dead, I wonder what Gordon Campbell would say today, Adrian Dix, the rejected NDP leader stated he regrets that the NDP didn`t do more to stop Enbridge, Gordon Campbell is long since dead, yes Stephen Harper and Gordon Muir Campbell I pass blame on to you and your complicit Cabinets, your legacy, Enbridge, bankrupt utilities, a dismal health care system, a dead central coast and slow dying life cycle, well, no one is listening to me, not the Governing federal Conservatives, not Premier Gordon Coons of the newly elected Refederation party, no, no one wants to listen to the left wing, after the BC Liberal led economic collapse, the seeds of P3s, IPPs and insider deals dominated, it didn`t matter who was Government in British Columbia, so many bad deals were signed, how many can the court overturn, the extent of the economic damage that came to fruition, what happened, like the Spanish flu in 1919 that killed millions, no one talks about the harm Gordon Campbell`s corporate Government inflicted upon us, the extent of one way contracts that ate up every Provincial dollar and more, I can`t help but think back to our 2010 Olympics, the pride, the I am Canadian attitude, Super Natural British Columbia but just a few short years after the closing ceremonies we have poisoned interior lakes, lost countless wild salmon runs to fish farms and now the third largest oil spill in the world, a death blow to our BC Coast, a massive spill in our migration engine.

Just picture heaven covered in oil, and what hurts even more, the people of BC don`t seem to care anymore, in the latest public opinion poll by Ipsos Reid job creation and big industry are more important than the environment, 67% for jobs and 16% say protect the environment, it`s times like this when I stare across at Mc Caully island or look into Norway inlet, smell the oil, I see the end of the world being played out, there is no shoulder of comfort to lean on, no soothing hugs that can squelch my silent anger, 576 successful departures from Kitimat, 576 loaded oil tankers that safely managed the inside passage, risk management, reward versus risk, despite 5 years of cruise ships not plying the inside passage, despite the loss to tourism, despite a sterile ocean desert, despite the tiniest of recoveries on the outer edges of the spill zone, despite of everything tanker traffic is predicted to triple over the next 3 years, an insatiable Asian appetite for oil and now that paradise is lost there is nothing left to fight for and no reason to stop, perhaps other Edens can be spared.

Number 577, no tears of anger no screams of silence, nothing but...

 "That peaceful easy feeling."

 

 

The Straight goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

 

British ColumbiaIs Losing The LNG Horserace, or is that British Columbia Lost The LNG Horserace

 

 

 

 

Japan is now receiving LNG from Papua New Gunea....First Shipments just left for Japan

 

 

 

 

Papua New Guinea becomes 20th LNG exporter as shipment leaves for Japan     

Papua New Guinea, the small nation in Oceania, has become the world's 20th LNG exporter after an ExxonMobil Corp.-operated facility constructed near the capital Port Moresby shipped its first cargo     Six years in the making, the PNG LNG project is expected to boost Papua New Guinea’s economy by a massive 15% in first year of production. Over the 30-year life of the project, the PNG LNG plans will produce more than nine trillion cubic metres of gas, about 6.9 million tonnes per year. How much income?  The total projected income from the project is US$31 billion. Of the one-third expected to remain in PNG, the vast majority is paid as tax revenue, dividends, royalties and infrastructure tax credits to the National Government, provincial governments and landowners, with around 10 per cent paid as operational costs. Peter Botten, CEO of venture partner Oil Search Limited, told Business Advantage PNG, the company expects to earn in excess of US$1.5 billion (K4.2 billion) per year from the project. The PNG government expects its annual revenues from PNG LNG to be US$600m (K 1.7 billion) to US$ 775m (K 2.2 billion) until early next decade and then, with the development costs depreciated, to rise raise rapidly to around US$1.58 billion (K4.5billion). Former Treasurer Don Polye says the PNG Government has pre-borrowed the future revenue from the gas project to underwrite a $1.2 billion (K3.4 billion) loan from Swiss bank UBS for a 10 per cent shareholding in Oil Search, which is also an exploration partner in what is hoped will be the country’s second major gas project, Elk/Antelope. ‘The sad story is there will not be any funds coming in because the first flow of gas, the monies coming in will be diverted to paying off the debt, the 3 billion kina debt, UBS loan, and therefore no money will go into the sovereign wealth fund,’ Polye has claimed. The long road to LNG: a timeline 1987    Gas is discovered at Hides in PNG’s Southern Highlands. 2004   The PNG Gas Project is considered to pipe gas to Australia from PNG. 2007    The PNG Gas Project is shelved and work starts on devising the current PNG LNG Project. 2008    Venture partners sign a gas agreement with the PNG State. 2009    Environmental Impact Statement approved by PNG Government (October). Final project approval and first sales and marketing agreement signed for the gas (December). 2010    Construction begins on the project. Project financing finalised (March). 2011     Work on LNG plant and onshore pipeline commences (April). Work on offshore pipeline commences (October). 2012    Work on Komo Airfield commences (September). 2013    First gas enters LNG plant (September). 2014    First LNG production (April). First LNG exports shipped to Japan (May). http://www.businessadvantagepng.com/papua-new-guineas-png-lng-project-gets-money/ ____________________________________ Can the BC Liberals come up with a taxation plan, one that is acceptable to the big energy giants, British Columbia has no national or provincial energy entity, we have nothing, the difference between Papau New Gunea and British Columbia is.. British Columbia is not investing any money, or borrowing money for any LNG project, British Columbia wants everyone else to do the heavy financial lifting, B.C. merely wants to hold out its hand in hopes that the big energy companies put money in.... Not likely to happen..As for Christy Clark`s LNG fantasy...Another gas shipper to Japan, B.C. has no final investment decisions, no taxation scheme acceptable to the energy companies, ... "The window of opportunity is closing" Papua New Gunea invested borrowed dollars to make it happen, ..... Unless British Columbia has money in the game, unless British Columbia rolls the dice with their own money ......? Unless that happened any financial return from LNG for British Columbia will be negligible.. Lastly...The Chinese market just evaporated,....The Japanese market just got a whole lot smaller..And.. Can you say Shinzo Abe and Japan`s nuclear restart later this year? The Straight Goods Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Christy Clark Puts On Her Red Shoes And Dances The LNG Blues

Written by Grant G


Panic, frozen sweat, fear of the cold hard truth bearing its pearly whites, what to do, call in emergency media intervention to calm the nerves of an increasing doubtful public, the dream, the myth, the fantasy of LNG riches must live on... ..

Yes I did read Vaughn Palmer`s article last week where he confirmed that the BC Liberals proposed 7% tax on LNG exports is gone, caput, off the table, the new number is 0.....That`s right folks, zero taxation on LNG exports, only royalties charged at the wellhead will be applicable or nothing will be built....I had to laugh, because even at a 7% tax level on LNG exports British Columbia would never receive the largesse Christy Clark promised, ..

Even the head dude at PETRONAS says whoa, taxation equals we will build nothing...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-told-to-release-lng-tax-regime-or-risk-losing-malaysian-business/article18789668/

During the 2013 election Christy cluck cluck Clark blathered away, not a thought between her ears, memorized talking points designed to dupe an unwitting public, with a complicit media assisting Christy Clark every step of the way..We will get four and five times the money for our gas in Japan and China, the money will be ours, a debt free province, a $100 billion dollar golden unicorn fund, tolls removed, new schools(without teachers), new hospitals, money for northern communities, money for First Nations, all the money will be ourssssssssssss, $$$$$$$$...Those big energy companies will just hand over the cash....Oh Christy, you silly goose..

1 LNG plant, 2...3...6...8....13 LNG plants, now 18 projects with 28 partners, grow baby grow, with the first plant up and running by 2015...uhh, I don`t think so,

Pacing back n forth, cold sweat running down gasman Rich Coleman`s face, help. help. help. we need the media to keep the dream alive, at least until our 2017 election, we gambled everything on LNG, all future revenue, all bills coming due and past due solved with LNG cash..oh no!..Mr. Bill..OH NO!

I read an article 2 weeks ago, it was about China, they have gone small scale fracking crazy, I did say small scale but so numerous that these small scale operations are adding up to really big gassy numbers..

____________________-

"Fuling should be considered China's first large-scale shale gas field, marking the arrival of commercial shale gas development," Fu said.
Rival PetroChina, whose 79 bcm of gas output last year accounted for two-thirds of national output, is aiming for 2.6 bcm of annual shale gas production in 2015, higher than 1.5 bcm indicated earlier. It has been conducting trial production mainly in Sichuan province.
A Reuters report quoted a company source and a government source as saying PetroChina plans to spend more than 10 billion yuan (HK$12.55 billion) on shale gas drilling this year alone, compared to three billion yuan between 2010 and last year. A company spokesman said spending would rise, but would not confirm the figures, adding: "The actual spending will depend on the results. If efficiency is good, we will increase outlays. Otherwise, we will stick with trial exploration."
Together, the two oil and gas giants should comfortably reach or surpass the 6.5 bcm shale gas output target set by Beijing for 2015. But meeting the government's 60 bcm and 100 bcm target for 2020 will be challenging. Credit Suisse's analysts said in a research report that the 2020 target was likely derived from the growth trajectory in the US between 2006 and 2012.
Xinhua on Tuesday quoted PetroChina vice-president Sun Longde as saying it is targeting 11 bcm of shale gas output in 2020.

___________________

Those industrious Chinese people, hmm, doesn`t look like they are waiting patiently for someone, or anyone to make a final investment decision on building a gas plant in LNG land, also known as British Columbia..

Poor little Christy Clark, her dreams dashed, well, she still has daggers and darts to throw at teachers, fuelled by a hatred of her father, Mr. Clark, the school teacher, Christy Clark`s father, wow, someone named Christy needs not a psychiatrist but a whole team of them, dagger, dart and bad gas directed at teachers, wheee, wheeee, let`s talk LNG, our BC gas will help single mothers on disability, it will help poor hungry children in destitute families, the cure-all to fix all that ails, step right up and buy some Christy Clark juice, whee wheee wheeee..

A funny thing happened on the way to never never land, we got lost, took the wrong turn, Russian pipelines pumping gas directly into China, pipelines from Turkmenistan too, oh, Iranian and Qatari gas too, all going to China..

But but but, but Russia can`t compete with British Columbia`s 18 count em, 18 LNG liquefaction plants...Ya know, ya think, how could they compete, we have the cleanest burning and coldest gas in the world, what methane, what fugitive gasses, our BC gas is like what comes out of angel`s bottom, sweet perfume of the gods, that`s what British Columbia has to offer, ..Ya know, and Russia is so far away from China, they aren`t across the Pacific Ocean like we are, Russia doesn`t have to freeze their gas either, we have cold gas, Russian gas is warm, yuck!..ya know, like warm beer, who drinks warm beer, .....!!!

Well Christy Clark, Russia and Turkmenistan, Iran and others don`t need to spend like $200 billion dollars on gas freezers, and China doesn`t need to spend $billions on regasification plants, pipe to pipe, ready to use warm gas....Well gollee Andy, ya think..

Not sure Christy Clark is sleeping well tonight, tossing turning, flipping and flopping, fluff those pillows and pray, pray and hope to hell the gullible public bought the emergency Vancouver Sun article, it was full of names and not a naysayer in the bunch, what Russia-China deal, means nothing, na na na na, can`t hear you my hands are covering my ears, please please please gas gods, let me Christy Clark wake up tomorrow and all is well, just a bad nightmare,...phew, what a relief, and, and ya know, isn`t Thursday the start of the 400th BC Liberal Government sponsored LNG summit.

Oh know, it wasn`t a nightmare...I`m sure the public bought the emergency Vancouver Sun spin..

No Christy, the public just dropped their jaws, the article I`m referring to was a desperate ploy, you could smell the fear, connect the dots, da players are bluffing with rags while China and Japan are holding aces...

Smoking gun, how many barrels do you fine folks need, ?..No final investment decisions, still no final investment decisions, Japan restarting nuclear plants meaning the already satisfied world demand for LNG is about to be a glut, Alaska getting in the game, the USA starting already exporting LNG, surely those Vancouver Sun energy experts quoted today in that emergency promotional article couldn`t be wrong, or lying, or have ulterior motives...

Let`s have a look shall we..Oh no Mr. Bill!...The Vancouver Sun pulled the article, could it be that readers could smell the fear, see the utter bullshit being blathered, maybe, however I did find the article in another place, bear with me...

__________

``I've never said that B.C. would be the only supplier of natural gas to any country, but what I have said is that every country, every receiver of natural gas is going to want to have one reliable partner in their portfolio,'' Clark said at a conference in Vancouver.


You mean other countries have gas too Christy?....Greg Richford didn`t sound too convincing either..


So far, seven export licences have been granted to proposed West Coast LNG projects, said federal Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford.
``Canada's vast energy supplies represent an opportunity for countries looking to diversify their energy imports, especially in the Asia-Pacific,'' he said in an emailed statement.
The International Energy Agency predicts a quadrupling in Chinese gas demand by 2035, he noted

Diversification is the word, look for it in 2035...

Ed Kallio, director of gas consulting at Ziff Energy, said the Russian exports to China will be ``just a drop in the bucket'' when its future gas consumption is taken into account.
``It doesn't even come close. This doesn't even scratch the surface.''

Ziffity doo da, ziffity day, didn`t feel a thing, what gas, what Russia/China deal, just a wee little scratch, no reason for me to even be quoted in this emergency pre-eve of the LNG conference de-fusing article, if you can`t trust a Ziff, who can you trust..


Hal Kvisle, CEO of Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. (TSX: T.TLM, Stock Forum), agrees the deal shouldn't rattle Canada.
``It's not a quantity of gas that's going to swamp the market,'' he told reporters on a conference call.

``It certainly doesn't shut the door on LNG exports from Canada.''


Hal Hal Hal, you are indeed a special person quoted, no ulterior motives with you or Talisman Energy is there, it`s not quantity it`s swampy, or something like that...Yet you Mr. Hal Kvisle are not interested in Canada`s west coast LNG super industry, you don`t want to waste your time, and of course this announcement wouldn`t have any bearing on your shale gas assets you and Talisman have for sale in Northeast British Columbia would it?....

Talisman has been active in Western Canadian shale gas, although it is looking to sell some properties and has no ambitions to invest in West Coast LNG export infrastructure. The company is also a big natural gas player in Southeast Asia, but Kvisle said it's a ``huge'' market that shouldn't be affected by the Russia-China deal.


Gordon Houlden from the University of Calgary`s China institute states...

``Time is of the essence. The faster we can move, the more nimble we can be as a country in terms of getting energy infrastructure built, the better our options will be and the greater benefit to the country.'' 

Hurry hurry hard, if only we had a final investment decision, or if only we had a taxation scheme, you know, like the one that was promised by the BC Liberals for September 2013, if only...

And I`ve saved the best quote for last, Christy Clark, you have claimed British Columbia has 150 years worth of gas for export, no matter how many LNG plants we have, 5..10..13...or even 18 LNG plants, we still have 150 years worth...

Barry Munro of Ernst n Young, ...isn`t that the same outfit who the BC Liberals had confirm their LNG job numbers, and revenue claims..I believe they were...

However, there are some ``real concerns,'' Munro said, not the least of which is getting First Nations on side with the projects. Plus, Canada is at a very early stage in the game.
``It's a greenfield industry in Canada, so not only do you have to prove up the natural gas reserves, we're going to have to build all the pipelines and facilities.''
 

Read more at


 http://www.stockhouse.com/news/newswire/2014/05/21/russia-china-gas-deal-not-seen-threat-to-canadian-west-coast-lng-prospects#qXUPTU9DG5c1JqDr.99

_________________

Hmmm, prove up reserves and get First Nations on board....but but but...We don`t need to prove up reserves, Christy Clark says....

___________

Premier Christy Clark is floating on air after receiving a National Energy Board report indicating B.C. has 150 years of natural gas reserves, as opposed to 75 years.
Clark said Wednesday the additional reserves add more clout to B.C.'s plans to support the development of liquefied natural gas plants in the north, which she has heralded as a trillion-dollar industry that could create 100,000 jobs and eventually help pay off the provincial debt.
"We have some of the richest, best and largest reserves to be found anywhere on the globe," Clark said in Vancouver. "Reserves that belong to the people of B.C. and resources that will mean 100,000 jobs for the people of this province."

The 23-page National Energy Board report assessed the Montney-area shale gas formation that spreads from northeastern B.C. near Fort Nelson to Fort St. John and across the B.C. border into northern Alberta. The energy board, the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, the Alberta Energy Regulator, and the B.C.
Natural Gas Development Ministry all contributed to the report

http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=302d07ac-26c4-4096-b801-b82d2ff5478c

______________

I wonder why Ernst n Young doesn`t believe the 4 mentioned groups above on their shale gas estimates, the NEB..The energy board, the B.C. oil n gas commission and the Alberta energy regulator, you`ll never find a more trustworthy group than them(sarcasm insert here)

Christy Clark is floating on air, hmmm, or is that flying on her broom..

We aren`t in Kansas anymore Christy Clark....Taps your shoes together three times and say...There`s no place like home, there`s no place like home, there`s no place like home...

Written by Grant G

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

The Rise Of Predator Economics And The Fall Of Good Governance

 

 

 

The Rise Of Predator Economics And The Fall Of Good Governance

 

 

 Written By Mark Taliano

 

 

If the definition of good governance includes the sound management of public monies and resources, then Canada has very bad governance.

 The manufactured health care crisis is a case in point.  Solutions to challenges of cost, quality, and access are fairly straightforward but wilfully ignored, and current trajectories towards corporatization are leading us in the wrong direction.

 If the challenges are responsibly addressed, every Canadian will have access to exemplary health care, based on need rather than ability to pay.  Additionally, Canadians will save money, and the economy will be positively impacted.

 Dr. Danielle Martin -- family physician, V.P of Medical Affairs and Health Systems Solutions at Women’s College Hospital, and Assistant Professor in Medicine and Health Policy at the University of Toronto -- is eminently qualified to offer solutions.

 She argues that we could immediately implement “Three Big Ideas” within an expanded  medicare system. Martin describes these ideas as follows:

 

                        * “20 Drugs To Save A Nation”                       

                        * “Less is More”

                        * “Sick With Poverty”

 

The first idea, “20 drugs To Save A Nation” would save lives, and improve the economy. 

Currently, one in ten Canadians can not afford their prescription medications.

Consequently, their medical conditions often worsen, which invariably leads to more expensive care, including hospital admissions.  A study by the New England Journal Of Medicine, appropriately titled "Dead Man Walking" , shows that when heart attack patients fail to adhere to their prescriptions, they are more likely to be readmitted to hospital.

 National public drug coverage also saves lives.  As Alan Cassels explains in "Opinion: A prescription for cutting costs" , public drug plans screen drugs for value and safety better than their private drug plan counterparts. He explains, “ … out of the top 50 most costly drugs covered by private drug plans, several of them wouldn’t merit coverage by public drug plans because of their poor value: they were branded drugs which had cheaper equivalent generics.”  

 The tragedy of Vioxx resonates with this opinion: premature release of the brand drug Vioxx caused between 4,000 - 7,000 deaths in Canada.

 

Bulk buying through a public drug plan also means that one purchaser (versus many) can secure lower prices for medications. New Zealand, for example, pays 2.4 cents for one Lipitor pill, while Canada pays 32 cents for the same pill.

 A national pharmacare program with first dollar coverage (a best case scenario) would save Canada as much as $10.7 billion per year.

 Dr. Martin’s “20 Drugs To Save A Nation” plan would be a first step towards national pharmacare.  She argues convincingly that we could start bulk-buying 20 generic drugs, and that such a step would not only improve patient-adherence rates to medications – and their health --- but it would save a substantial amount of money.

 The next idea, “Less Is More”, would also save money, and lives.  According to Martin, numerous medical tests, treatments, and procedures are administered more often than necessary. Consequently, health outcomes can be negatively impacted, and additional costs accrued.  A sobering study by Dr. Ray Sahelian reinforces the message.  He notes that “Radiation from CT scans done in 2007 will cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans.”

 

The top five tests, treatments, and procedures that are done more often than necessary are:

 

            * Electrocardiograms (ECG’s)

            * Imaging tests for lower back pain

            * CT scans and MRI’s for headaches

            * Bone density tests (DEXA scans)

            * Antibiotics for sinusitis

 

The excellent internet site www.choosingwiselycanada.org  not only identifies the numerous problems, and dangers, associated with unnecessary testing, but it also explains  "When you need them -- and when you don't" .

 The final big idea, “Sick With Poverty” explains that poverty is basically a disease. The corollary of this is that if poverty can be eliminated --- and 1 in 7 Canadian children live in poverty --- then we will be a much healthier (and productive) society.

 A 2013 study by the Canadian Medical Association, “Health Care In Canada.  What Makes Us Sick?” identifies four social determinants of health:

 

                        * income

                        * housing

                        * nutrition and food security

                        * early childhood development

 

Canada’s failure to understand this aggravates and perpetuates an unnecessary situation – poverty.  If all Canadians had adequate income, housing, nutrition/ food security, as well as early childhood education, our population would be healthier, societal costs for health care, policing, and other social services would be reduced, and we would collectively be more productive.

 Evidence shows that Canada would save $7.6 billion per year on reduced health care costs alone if the lowest group of earners moved up by one “quintile” (to two) on a scale of earnings with the top quintile being five.

 This could be financed by discarding Canada’s current welfare system and replacing it with a Guaranteed Annual Income  system which would redistribute monies through taxes.

 Clearly, we have the tools and the funds to make Canada a better and stronger nation, but it won’t happen until the current theology of predatory economics that is poisoning the economy, and our collective mindset, is rejected.

Instituting Dr. Martin’s “Three Big Ideas” would be a huge step in the right direction.

 

Written By Mark Taliano


________________________________

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Stephen Harper Presents Mock Legislation, A Slap In The Face To All British Columbians

Written by Grant G


Earlier this year I believed that Stephen Harper wouldn`t risk giving Enbridge`s northern Gateway pipeline proposal the green light for political reasons, thinking about the next federal election, it appears that I was wrong...

So bought, so controlled by big oil that Stephen Harper is prepared to play the fool, act the court jester, don`t let his plastic crown fool you in to believing he has any power, he doesn`t, Stephen Treason Harper, the sad face of big oil and CAPP, an oil man, a religious zealot obsessed with nothing but enriching multi-national energy companies no matter what the social and environmental costs may be....Today..

Today Stephen Harper tipped his Enbridge enabling hand by tabling, not enacting but tabling a bill, a bill that won`t stand up to scrutiny or the rule of law, in fact I doubt this bill will ever see the light of day...

__________________

VANCOUVER - The federal government announced new measures Wednesday to ensure pipeline companies pick up the tab for any spills, as cabinet prepares to announce its decision on the contentious Northern Gateway pipeline project.

Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said the new rules are not tied to any particular project but put in place an unmatched regime for pipeline safety.

"Even in the most extreme, rare or unlikely circumstances, the government will ensure that the environment, landowners and taxpayers are protected and the polluter pays," he said in Vancouver

_______________________


Stephen Harper is such a small puny man, a weak-knee`ed liar, Harper thinks that British Columbians are rubes or turnip truck fallees, not sure which one however, bitumen can`t be cleaned up once puked into oceans or rivers, does he think we aren`t paying attention to detail, to facts, this Vancouver Sun reporting of this mock legislation is not just a sad joke it`s insulting to every thinking British Columbian.

First off northern gateway is a limited liability company, Enbridge has legally separated northern gateway from Enbridge`s assets, they have but $1 billion dollars, that`s it, also, northern gateway is 49% owned by China, few people are aware of that fact, what you people may also not know that once northern gateway is in operation(it will never be in operation) ..Northern Gateway is selling the entirety of that project/pipeline to China for a big fat healthy profit..!

Back to the matter at hand, pipeline companies are already responsible for inland spills, no ifs and or buts, unless sabotage or act of god can be proven, so it appears that this mock proposed legislation is designed to trick people in to believing that Kinder Morgan or Enbridge would be responsible for costs related to a super tanker catastrophe on our west coast, ha!....

To expect educated Canadians(exclude Harper`s conservative base in that educated part, knuckle dragging missing links they be) to believe any court could make a oil pipeline company/exporter pay for a collision at sea, a grounding on unforgiving rocks or mechanical breakdown leading to a runaway tanker, to expect a court to make Kinder Morgan or Northern Gateway pay for actions involving oil out of their hands is silly, not enforceable, silly blather and comic book legislation cobbled together by the king of clowns, Stephen Treason Harper...

In that same article, incoherent blather about this "tabled" not enacted legislation protecting the environment and the taxpayer...Our environment doesn`t use legislation, it doesn`t read or care what silly words Harper`s corrupt crew uses, as for the taxpayer, in the same breath this Harper spokesperson claims the taxpayer is protected and in the event that the oil pipeline company won`1t pay or can`t pay the federal government will pay the tab and the NEB, national energy board will chase down the monies from "industry"....

Really, is that the best you Cons can come up with?

____________________

"Under the new rules, pipeline companies will have absolute liability in the event of a spill. It means they will have to pay all costs and damages related to oil spills, without needing to be proven negligent or at fault.

Pipeline operators will also be required to have a minimum amount of cash available for cleanup costs. The National Energy Board will have the power to order reimbursement of spill costs and to take over spill response should the pipeline company be unable or unwilling to do so.

The federal government will cover any spill-related costs a company cannot pay, and the national energy regulator would recoup the money from industry".

____________________
You see that, if these oil pipeline companies have no money or refuse to pay the feds will pay, meaning you the taxpayer will pay!!... will the long arm of the National Energy Board swoop in on all those offshore tax havens and get the money..?...Sure they will..

Those silly Harper Conservatives, their legislation which won`t be enacted in this spring session isn`t even legal, the oil companies with their gaggles of lawyers must be having a real hard chuckle over this cheap tawdry propaganda...Especially those Exxon Valdez lawyers, you know the ones, they have been and still are litigating that disaster 25 years later, one of the world`s wealthiest companies refuses to pay and over time any settlement amount shrinks with the value of the dollar, $5 billion 25 years ago was real money, today not so much..

The Vancouver Sun article go on to say.....

__________

There has never been an incident in Canada where a pipeline company was not responsive to a spill, they said.

And there has only ever been one pipeline spill that exceeded $1 billion to cleanup. That was a 2010 spill from an Enbridge pipeline into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, which is still being cleaned up.

Ziad Saad, vice-president of safety for the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, welcomed the changes. There are measures in place now for extreme circumstances, he said.

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Pipeline+firms+costs+damages+spill+safety+rules/9839444/story.html

____________________

The articles claims how safe pipelines are and how Canadian operators are so responsive, they also cite the 2010 Kalamazoo Michigan Enbridge pipeline disaster, 2010....we are now halfway through 2014 and that river is still polluted, still being dredged as you can`t clean up spilled bitumen in water, the only way to clean it up is to dredge the river, meaning you must remove the river, I don`t think our spawning salmon would be too thrilled with all their birthing gravel being removed for years...You can`t dredge Haida Gwaii or the Hecate (hurricane alley) Strait

Enbridge the mother corp company specifically removed Northern Gateway from Enbridge`s company assets as they weren`t prepared to take the risk with their money, and FIPA overrules any mock "tabled" legislation, illegal legislation at that, no wonder vice president of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association Ziad Saad welcomes the legislation...He welcomes it because it is illegal and unenforceable, it wouldn`t stand up to any court challenge, ...Stephen Harper knows his mock legislation is nothing but court jester blather..

There are a minimum 10,000 people who will physically block Enbridge`s pipeline, Harper`s Northern Gateway pipeline nod is headed for the courtroom, First Nations, specifically the Haisla will prevent this project...there it will languish for years, it only needs just over 1 year until Stephen Harper and his sorry ass is punted from office as both Thomas Mulcair and Justin Trudeau are dead against Enbridge`s pipeline..

The audacity of Stephen Harper presenting unenforceable comic book legislation in an attempt to ease British Columbians concerns proves just how unfit Stephen Harper is for Canada`s top political office..

Go fluck yourself Stephen, see you in court!

Written by Grant G


__________________

P.S......Friends, readers and contributors....The resurrection is taking a little longer than anticipated...Another 2 weeks to go..Pictures to follow.

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open


 

CBC. Public Broadcasting Goes To The Wall.

The Crumbling Mainstream Press and Media in Canada.

 

 

Written by Robin Mathews

 

 

  Part Three.  The CBC.  Public Broadcasting Goes To The Wall.

 

It was “The National”, and it was April 24. 

 I don’t very often watch television, and so the experience was shocking – to watch on a large screen what is believed by many to be one of the most informative news productions in Canada. 

 Not a television watcher, I saw - perhaps – what others don’t normally see: “Infopropaganda” – a combination of show business, technological sleight-of-hand, “celebrity”, dress-up, make-up, and cut-to-time program shaping.  “News” came last.  “News” was buried under sentimental posturing and “expertise”.  That show revealed, perhaps, major problems that haunt the CBC – problems to a large extent created and/or exacerbated by the hatred the Harper neo-liberals have for public broadcasting.

 You could see it on “The National”; you see it on TV; you hear it on radio.

 The CBC pretends it isn’t in a world in which government hates public responsibility, though that condition is visible everywhere .  The CBC pretends it mustn’t fight back to preserve the integrity of public broadcasting in Canada.  It mirrors an attitude often shown by Opposition parties – that it exists in a normal political climate not in a climate in which it faces a full-scale attack on democracy in Canada. It acts as if it isn’t in the sights of a neo-fascist government that wants to wreck all public responsibility and all public service institutions … on the way to unlimited power and unquestioned authority. 

 That was stunningly and embarrassing clear when Peter Mansbridge introduced the matter of the 2011 Robocall Report by Yves Cote, Commissioner of Elections Canada.  His Report – Cote admits - was stymied by refusals to cooperate and huge, unnecessary delays, largely on the part of the Conservative Party. He declares there is not information enough to begin criminal charges in the matter.  How can he know?

 Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch says simply: “the Commissioner made the wrong decision”.  The Commissioner couldn’t demand cooperation with the investigation (a huge flaw in Elections Canada powers), but he could have reported weekly throughout the investigation that he was being blocked, and by whom.  Had he done that over the three years, he might well have received considerably more cooperation than he got.  Instead, he acted, it would seem, like one of the boys in the club: make believe you’re able to investigate; make believe you can take no initiative; make believe you can’t speak about your investigation and the people blocking it; make believe you are much more hampered than you need be; then make a Report that looks as if it were written by someone in the Prime Minister’s Office.

 The whole thing was as mawkish and ill-handled as it could be.

Was it those things intentionally?

 

The only thing worse was the treatment the release of the Report  got on CBC’s “The National” on April 24.

 All participants from Peter Mansbridge on acted as if the Report was all there is to say about the corruption involved. No one reminded the viewers that the Conservative Party of Canada pleaded guilty to election violations in the 2006 election – after fighting Elections Canada for five years. 

 No one reminded viewers that the Conservative Party of Canada was found in violation of Robocalling rules in 2013 and paid $78,000.00 in fines to the CRTC in April of 2013.  Trying to interfere in the objective Electoral Boundary changes in Saskatchewan, the Conservative Party of Canada oversaw thousands of illegitimate Robocalls in Saskatchewan.  The only reason it didn’t face criminal charges is because the Conservative government resists all regulation of electoral violation and the bringing of such violations clearly into the Criminal Code. 

 In the midst of the phoniest attempt at fraudulent legislation in the last half century – The (Un)fair Elections Act – Yves Cote produced what must seem to many, besides Duff Conacher, as the wrong decision in the 2011 Robocall Scandal “investigation”. 

 One would expect that “The National” would have provided an anatomy of election fraud and violation in the last eight years.  (Peter Mansbridge’s “Introduction”.) And … that it would have placed the Yves Cote decision within that frame. Not at all.  What the public got was, to my mind, a piece of amateur theatre so bad that I thanked the gods of communication that I don’t watch television.  Chantal Hebert, in my opinion, looking as if she just had her hair dyed black, acted as if she is a mixture of Shakespeare’s Falstaff and Lady Macbeth.

 With the apparent cooperation of everyone else on the show – except the journalist from The Huffington Post – Ms. Hebert asserted that journalists make mistakes and they would all have to step back … and even apologize for their attitudes to the 2011 Robocall scandal.  No criticism of Cote.  No placing of the investigation. No facts. As she – metaphorically speaking – rolled her eyes and beat her breast the dreary little piece of theatre played itself out. 

 The representative from Huffington Post tried to enter criticism of the nonsense in front of her.  But she seemed, obviously, to be considered of a lower order in the group that considers present issues.  When she attempted to speak, Peter Mansbridge cut her off.  No time.

 I am describing a situation as I saw it.  I mean no insult to the Huffington Post journalist.  She seemed to me unfit for the job, inexperienced, too wordy, not able to dislodge the others though she had the best case.  I couldn’t help but think that “The National” has no intention of placing a more excellent person in the place she fills.

 That speaks to the larger game of the CBC.  Its panels are tired, rarely using really sharp and informed people.  There are hundreds capable … but they never get time on the CBC.  Bloggers all over the country are better than most commentators/critics on CBC.  Those non-CBC voices are never used on CBC. 

 Instead, Canadians watch Rex Murphy. He is a CBC regular who the CBC pretends is an independent, outside contractor.  He provides, on the rare occasions I can bring myself to watch him, regular doses of reactionary commentary valuable to the Harper forces.  No more need be said….

 I have been saying things here as if all was impressionistic response.  But a number of things are clear.  The CBC won’t do its job.  Whether from fear or for other reasons, it repeatedly , throughout its programming from The Current, As It Happens, The 180, The Sunday Edition, “The National” … and on, and on does the same thing.  Whether speaking of Cuba, lawsuits involving El Salvador, issues in the Ukraine or Syria, Conservative violations of trust and decency in Canada, the CBC refuses to ask real questions informatively and responsibly. It refuses to have hard-hitting, historically informed commentators. That fact was screechingly clear on “The National”, April 24, 2014.

 

Just for instance, Jim Brown of The 180 allowed Preston Manning (Brown didn’t interview someone opposed, of course) to make outrageously reactionary statements without asking an intelligent question. (April 8, 2014)  As Manning said such hyper-stupid things as that pipelines wouldn’t go through without demand and that decisions by government must be accepted by the people or the rule of law is undermined, Jim Brown accepted.  In the face of a government that misinforms and gags Canadians every day, Manning insisted Canadians must obey a trust factor in relation to government.

 

Not a single probing question was asked by Jim Brown then (and when facing The Oil Industry representatives or people one might call ‘powerful’, my recording is that Jim Brown NEVER asks a probing question, ever).

 

When Anna Maria Tremonte finally had a good, intelligent analyst on the history that brought the Ukraine to the state it had reached by the April 9, 2014 broadcast, Ms. Tremonte got the speaker in and out without a serious question asked. It was as if she was afraid of letting the analyst say more for fear he might … upset … someone.  Keep quiet.  Get rid of the speaker as soon as possible. Don’t let anyone suggest the U.S./NATO have anything to do with the mess in the Ukraine.  Don’t let anyone say the Harper attacks on Russia are the idiocies of a kneejerk Reactionary scarecrow waving his arms in a field where no crows fly.

 

Ms. Off of As It Happens (April 2, 2014) interviewed in Mons, Belgium, a person from Command Centre of NATO who informed her that physical takeovers are no longer acceptable (in relation to the Crimea, I believe).  Ms. Off didn’t ask what that meant about the War in Iraq, the smashing of Libya, the NATO War (unapproved by the UN) to take over Kosovo ... and the endless sabre rattling over Iran.  From Ms. Off, not a probing or serious question!!! 

 The examples of huge CBC failure to inform Canadians multiply until one comes to believe the Corporation has thrown in the towel and is willing to crawl on its belly before the Harper cabinet. If that is the case, and the CBC believes it must abase itself, must flatter the Harper neo-fascists … then it has gone to the wall and is its own destroyer. 

 That is because the adversities of history have given the CBC a chance to do brilliant and heroic things and to be an invaluable part of Canadian history in the first quarter of the 21^st century. 

 To answer the thuggish cuts to its funding, the CBC should cut where necessary to increase News staff, to launch rapier-like  investigative reporting, to call in brilliantly informed and critical commentators, and to bare the democracy-destroying corruption in Canada.

 

f only the CBC would deal with the news that matters in Canada now – at this moment…. If two reporters at the Ottawa Citizen can expose the election corruption of the Harper goons, then the CBC could do fifty times more.  Instead it masks, and fluffs, and pads, and sentimentalizes, and avoids, and misleads, and fails to report or to ask central questions.

 Public broadcasting has gone to the wall, because the CBC hasn’t the guts to be what it should be for Canadians.  Weep.  Mourn. Wail. Tear your hair. Lament.  You are cursed by the fear and self-loathing and cowardice of people who are especially chosen to protect democracy in Canada … and who refuse to do their job.

 

 

 

 

Written by Robin Mathews

_______________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open