The Stanley Park protest last week was Justin Trudeau’s most substantial encounter with dissent as prime minister. He can expect much more to come on the issue in question – his quandary of whether to permit Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline proposal – because we in this region have seen this movie repeatedly in B.C on the environment-energy pain point.
Local public support – in particular, the vocal part of it – would not be on Trudeau’s side should he and his cabinet next month permit the project, even with the 157 conditions the National Energy Board attached. It might cost some MPs their jobs next election.
While our reporting has attempted to reflect the differing views on the economic and moral consequences of the proposal, we have been on record as saying our national economic obligation confers a responsibility on our region to efficiently and safely deliver goods to the wider world through our ports. It was why we were settled here, even if there are today other reasons to be here.
There are legitimate questions facing Trudeau’s cabinet on the true global demand for another pipeline, on the viability of our country’s energy sector, on the social cost of overriding some First Nations objections, on the safety of the enterprise and on the environmental consequences of production, distribution and usage of one of the world’s most challenging resources to extract.
The realpolitik for Trudeau sets those elements aside. He needs to signal seriousness about getting Alberta out of recession, about finding a medium-term national bridge to a greener economy, about building a more durable relationship with China and about the most expeditious way to get what comes out of the ground into the market – all the while trying to be an exemplar to the world on the environment. He has been seeding the ground by, among other things, addressing concerns about regulation and spill response and creating a national carbon tax to put a price tag on the environment impact.
If his government chooses to approve – and if this pipeline isn’t approved, it’s hard to see any other one approved – this will be his government’s biggest test of resolve.
