Great Lakes Citizens Must Call On Ontario Government For Full Environmental Review Of Tar Sands Pipeline

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

So Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli, according to some Toronto media reports, is already saying ‘no’ to Ontario applying a full and open environmental assessment review to plans by Alberta-based Enbridge Inc. to pipe tar sands crude through the heart f of our Great Lakes basin.

Ontario Environment Minister and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley. Hey Jim, How about a full enviornmental review of a tar sands pipe snaking through our Great Lakes?

Let’s hope that citizens across the Great Lakes region – all of the many millions of us, Canadians and Americans,  who dependant on this world’s blessed natural resources  as a source of fresh, drinkable water – don’t take Chiarelli’s no as the final answer.

Nor should we roll over and play dead just because Canada’s a supposedly “independent” National Energy Board, with a board membership made up predominantly of individuals with backgrounds in steering through pipeline and other projects through to completion for petroleum and other energy interests, announced its approval this March 7^th of the Enbridge plan to reverse the flow of a decades-old ‘Line 9’ pipeline through our region to move diluted bitumen (or bitchumen, as I prefer to call that black, witch’s brew of a tar-like liquid)  from Alberta’s tar sands to refineries and Ontario and Quebec.

 What the citizens of this Great Lakes region should do, including our American neighbours,  who have just as much at stake if these vital waterbodies are polluted as millions of residents in Ontario do, is appeal to Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley NOW for a full environmental assessment review of this proposal. Jim Bradley, a St. Catharines MPP is Ontario’s environment minister now and was such a heroic environment minister the first time around when \ environmentalists like David Suzuki spoke for him, calling him one of the best environmentalists in the country. That was at a time, more than two decades ago, when former Ontario Premier David Peterson had the courage to appoint Bradley to that position in the 1980s. 

It was at a time when Bradley and the government of the day favoured full environmental reviews on any proposal that might have an impact on the environmental health of people in Ontario and surrounding jurisdictions. 

Let’s just hope that Bradley, who is environment minister again, and a significant number of others in his governing Ontario party don’t forget how important a full environmental assessment is to this Line 9 proposal. 

Let’s hope that Bradley and company understand that as much as people from the energy end of the equation – many of them former and probably future energy executives – say yes to snaking a tar sands pipe through our Great Lakes, we need a full environmental assessment to ensure this will not lead or, at least, will unlikely lead in decades to come, to a rupture or leak of a pipeline that could impact on the water supplies for many millions of Canadians and Americians downstream. 

Let me make it clear that a full environmental assessment of this Lineany 9 project would not necessarily mean it is finally rejected. What it will mean, however, and this is most important, is that any and all risks to the environment will be reviewed and that any permit granted to Enbridtge includes conditions it must follow to minimize those risks

Bradley said yes to a full environmental review of a plan to site a major toxic waste dump in the Niagara community of West Lincoln – a plan that was ultimately rejected – and he fought for a full environmental assessment of any plan to construct a Mid-Peninsula Highway across Ontario 

So surely, a full environmental assessment of a  tar sands pipe across Ontario – one that transgresses vital connecting channels and watersheds in our Great Lakes – should not be that much to ask for. 

Once again, a full environment assessment is not about saying no to the Line 9 project, but it is about ensuring that if it goes through, very strict conditions for protecting health and environment are attached to it. 

Let’s hope that Ontario’s Environment Minister, Jim Bradley, agrees.

If you agree that a full and open environmental assessment of this tar sands pipe should be conducted in Ontario, you can contact Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley through the following means – 

The Honourable Jim Bradley
Minister of the Environment
77 Wellesley Street West
11th Floor, Ferguson Block
Toronto ON
M7A 2T5

Email the Minister

Email: minister.moe@ontario.ca
Telephone: (416) 314-6790
Fax: (416) 314-2979

You can go to Google and click in Enbridge and pipeline leaks to find out  how lousy a record this corporation already has in Canada and the United States on keep its pipes from doing some pretty serious damage.

Here are some related stories yuo can click on:

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

Alberta Clipper Pipeline To Destroy Wetlands And Threaten Great Lakes

Groups Urge Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley To Launch Full Public Review On Proposed Tar Sands Pipeline

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)