Enbridge’s Tar Sands Pipeline – Do You Need Permission To Talk About This Pipeline Running Through Your Ontario Community? Welcome to Harperland!

A Message from Canada’ Green Party 

(This April 11, Ontario’s NDP environment critic urged Ontario’s government and the province’s environment minister Jim Bradley to launch a full environmental review of plans to pipe tar through the Great Lakes region of Ontario, and received a vague response that Niagara At Large will highlight in a commentary in the next couple of days.

What is important to consider for the moment, and as the federal Green Party says, if we had a spill of a magnitude or higher of that now occurring with this tar sands material and accompanying toxic chemical fluids in the Great Lakes, it could potentially threaten the water supplies for many millions of Canadian and American residents downstream, including residents in Niagara who receive their drinking water from the Great Lakes. 

Please be sure to click on the map of where this pipeline is proposed to run through our Great Lakes region, including upstream Lakes Huron and Michigan, and ask yourself if you think it is okay for our federal and provincial governments in Canada to say no to a full environment assessment before this project is allowed to proceed.)

Ottawa, April, 2013 – The Green Party of Canada condemns the new public debate suppression requirements put in place by the National Energy Board (NEB) at the request of Harper’s Conservatives.

Canada’s Green Party leader, Elizabeth May

 “Ten-thousand barrels of dilbit, a mixture of bitumen and toxic diluent, were spilled in Arkansas last week. Citizens in Toronto and everywhere along Enbridge’s Line 9 have legitimate concerns and tough questions to ask the NEB. Muzzling their opposition is against basic principles of natural justice. These new barriers to free speech would not stand up to judicial review,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands.

 In their fight against Omnibus Bill C-38, the Greens tried to prevent the destruction of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). Green Leader Elizabeth May put forward amendments –rejected by the Conservatives– to protect rights for public participation, which were once fundamental to the CEAA. The terms used in C-38 restrict public participation to those “directly affected”. “It is that terminology that has led to the abuse we witness today, but even with that restrictive language, the NEB has made it even more restrictive by adding its own two-week timeline,” said May.

A map of the route for the tar sands pipe from west to east and called Line 9 as it runs through Ontario’s Great Lakes region. Imagine a spill like the one now involving tar sands material in Arkansas, and ask yourself what it would mean if the same magnitude of spill occurred in a section of this pipeline offshore of Lakes Michigan, Huron, Lake Erie or a major connecting channel like the St. Clair River? What could that mean, not only for a billion dollar fishery, but for drinking water supplies downstream, including those in the greater Niagara region? Then ask yourself why are provincial, federal and, for that matter state politicians in the U.S. aren’t demanding a full environmental review of this project? Click on this map to blow it up for a better appreciation of where this pipeline would run.

 “Enbridge plans to pump dilbit, with added benzene, a notorious carcinogen, through our neighbourhoods using an aging pipe system originally built for natural gas. What would a spill near Lake Ontario mean for the water supply of millions of people?” asked May.

 “After muzzling scientists, Stephen Harper muzzles citizens. Add his obsession for the oil business and his disregard for Parliament in the mix, and you’ve got a great example of Harperland in action,” said May.

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