If $1.2 billion in tax revenue and 4,000 new jobs can’t sell British Columbians on the merits of the Northern Gateway pipeline, Enbridge Inc. (TSX: ENB) is hoping a $5 million ad campaign will.
Enbridge is launching a multi-pronged public awareness campaign today in an effort to sell British Columbians on the 1,170-kilometre two-way pipeline, more than half of which would cut through northern B.C., carrying 525,000 barrels per day of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to Kitimat.
A twin pipeline would carry 193,000 barrels per day of condensate in the other direction, from Kitimat to Edmonton. Condensate is a chemical-petroleum mixture used to dilute the tarry oil from the oilsands.
Although nearly half of the pipeline runs through Alberta, the campaign (northerngateway.ca) will target B.C. almost exclusively.
Paul Stanway, communications manager for Enbridge, said a similar public awareness campaign isn’t needed in Alberta because Albertans are more familiar with pipelines and generally more accepting of the oil and gas industry.
In B.C., the pipeline is a tougher sell, largely because many British Columbians feel B.C. will get most of the environmental detriments and few of the benefits.
Apart from the climate change concerns that burning fossil fuels poses, many British Columbians are worried about potential oil spills in the Douglas Channel, which would see 225 oil tankers a year.
“While oil pipelines and tankers threaten to have potentially devastating and long-term environmental impacts, the economic benefits of the Enbridge pipeline are limited, and most of the employment will be short-term,” according to West Coast Environmental Law.
The Northern Gateway Project is currently under an environmental review.
Stanway said, “We hear the allegation that B.C. gets nothing out of this project, which is very far from the truth.”
He said 1,150 full-time jobs along the pipeline would be created, about half of which would be in B.C. Another 3,000 to 4,000 jobs would be created during the construction phase over a three to four year period.
“A lot of the areas that the pipeline goes through are high unemployment areas,” Stanway added.
Stanway said the campaign that launched today will continue until the end of the year.
