– Where Was Our Ontario Government To Speak Up For Our Environment On This One?
A Submission from Fiona McMurran, Council Of Canadians
(A Brief foreword note from Niagara At Large – Think of what a sad note this sends out to our American neighbours fighting the XL Keystone pipe, to see that Ontario and other provinces in this province have roled over and done nothing to fight this tar sands pipe moving through a Great Lakes basin that holds the largest reserve of fresh water in the world?)
Welland, Ontaro. The Council of Canadians South Niagara Chapter condemns the National Energy Board (NEB) today for approving Enbridge’s Line 9 proposal to ship diluted bitumen in their forty-year-old pipeline between Sarnia and Montreal and it urges Premier Kathleen Wynne to prevent the controversial project from going forward.
Ontario is allowing this Line 9 Pipe to run tar sands toxics through the heart of our freshwater Great Lakes region.
“Pipeline safety expert Richard Kuprewicz testified to the NEB that Line 9 has a high risk of rupture if the project goes ahead” says Chapter spokesperson, Fiona McMurran. “Line 9 passes though hundreds of communities and rivers that flow right into the Great Lakes and Enbridge still hasn’t finished cleaning up after their last massive diluted bitumen spill in the Kalamazoo River four years ago.”
“How can the NEB allow an accident prone company to pump some of the dirtiest oil on the planet through an ancient pipeline across the drinking water supply of millions of people?” ” says McMurran. “The NEB is clearly just a rubber stamp for big oil. It has ignored the concerns of participants in the hearings, as well as documented evidence of Enbridge’s inadequate oversight of its pipeline”. “It is the absolute duty of the province to protect our drinking water. Premier Wynne must step in to prevent a catastrophe.”
The Council of Canadians is Canada’s largest citizens advocacy group with more than 60 chapters across the country and 11 chapters near Line 9 including London, Guelph, Brantford, Hamilton, South Niagara, Peel Region, York University, Toronto, Northumberland, Peterborough and the Kawarthas, Brockville and Montreal.
For more information on this important development, click on http://risingtidetoronto.noblogs.org/files/2014/02/NEB_report_final.pdf .
The Council of Canadians is a nation-wide citizens group based in Ottawa, Ontario.
(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.)
Niagara At Large 
A look at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) pipeline map shows how vulnerable Canada’s domestic oil supplies are to continued good cross border relations: http://www.capp.ca/getdoc.aspx?DocID=227299
A quick call from the White House to Port Huron, Michigan and our Alberta oil will be sitting behind closed valves on the American side.
What was government thinking in 1958 to allow Trans Canada to route the oil south of the border? Looks like another case of private sector expediency trumps sovereignty.
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I get the Tribune by default as I got it to fulfill the wish of a Port Colborne hospital Cancer Patient who since has passed away.
“NOW” when I open this paper, which is truly Right Wing rag, I get sick, Sick from the Sun Media and their articles that betray the citizens of Canada by their support for a Pipeline Project that could literally ruin the greatest fresh water source in the world. Why in God’s name would they do this? Greed, Money, Corporate entitlement and a sweet deal agreement orchestrated by Harper through his Alberta stacked NATIONAL ENERGY BOARD. Though many of these people do not originate from Alberta they hold allegiance and positions within that Province, positions held because Harper owns them….A sickness spread from the goons in Ottawa, a sickness of GREED and self adoration.
When a respected gentleman with extensive Pipeline Experience speaks out about TRUTH in the reality of massive old spills that could literally devastate “all” areas bordering on the Great Lakes his words are disregarded by this Ottawa Dictatorship.and Enbridge can once again have another Kalamazoo but of greater epic proportions. IT will not be only the animals that will suffer but “ALL” Peoples….Thank you local rag…Plague on you for helping to destroy this country.
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