To the Editor,
Re: Protest over B.C. pipeline hits Nanaimo, Oct. 20.
Canada is the sixth largest oil producer on the planet Earth and exports approximately two million barrels of oil a day.
With each of those barrels, we attach a $20 “thank-you” note to our neighbours down south.
That’s roughly $14 billion a year.
The reason for that $20 thank-you note is that the only folks we are allowed to sell our oil to is the U.S. There is no way to deliver Canadian oil (your oil and my oil) to world markets where we would get real-time, live oil pricing.
We Canadians need that pipeline to get our oil to world markets. Building it should not be a question in anyone’s mind. The only question should be how we build it. Safety, environmental impact etc., should be all part of the solution fervently being engineered as we speak.
The real issue is a lack of national perspective. People who oppose the pipeline just don’t understand what an extra $14 billion dollars a year in private sector income can do for this country. They are also the same folks who have no faith in Canada’s ability to innovate, engineer, build, or compete on a world-class basis. They simply say Canadians just can’t do it right, so don’t do it.
The other thing is that the U.S. is not in the charity business. It wants cheap oil for a reason, and it’s not so Canada can be a better place to live and raise your kids.
Doug Jones
Nanaimo