[EXCERPT]
The head of the Business Council of British Columbia says the longer we wait to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline, the harder it will be to compete with the United States as a global provider of crude oil.
Greg D’Avignon says Ottawa’s latest approval of the multi-billion dollar expansion comes up to eight years too late.
“During this period of time in the United States, they’ve added 35,000 kilometres of new crude oil pipeline and Canada is one of the biggest customers of that export –over 370,000 barrels a day. We need to get things built on a timely basis,” he says.
“The reality is British Columbians continue to buy more cars. In 2017, we purchased another 70-thousand vehicles that all require petroleum input. We import smart phones and pharmaceutical products and the way we pay for those is by exporting natural resources and energy products.”
The President and CEO of BCBC is also pleading with Premier John Horgan to stop trying to block something which has support from many Indigenous leaders.
“This isn’t an either/or. It’s an and. It has resulted in 1.5-billion dollars investment in marine protection that should have happened decades ago.”
