Letter to the Editor: Canada doesn’t need more pipelines
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says the province’s carbon tax will diversify industry, reduce pollution and help Alberta win approval for pipelines. This thinking will not help Canada meet its climate targets.
Although carbon pricing will reduce demand on fossil fuels, it is equally critical for Canada to stop the expansion of fossil-fuel projects, one of Canada’s largest greenhouse-gas emitters, and manage the decline of existing production.
Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has committed to a just transition for workers in the oil and gas industry, and the price of clean, safe and renewable energy continues to drop. Another pipeline approval will undermine this progress, threaten local waterways and ecosystems and violate the rights of Indigenous peoples who do not consent to pipelines in their territories.
To show true climate leadership, the federal government must demonstrate to Canadians that the transition to a clean-energy economy is underway and that pipelines are not part of the solution.
Beth Lorimer, Ecological Justice Program Coordinator, KAIROS Canada
Published in the Toronto Star on January 7, 2018
