Lək̓ʔəŋən [LEKWUNGEN] TERRITORY / VICTORIA, B.C. — The BC Greens responded to the announcement of the pipeline plan from Mark Carney today.
“This pipeline makes B.C.’s coast more vulnerable to Trump, not less. The pipeline’s oil tankers will travel through American waters close to B.C.’s coast, requiring cooperation with the Trump’s government. Shockingly, we’ve heard the Major Projects Office has downplayed this issue, referring to the longstanding trade relationship with the United States. Trump, already proven to be an unstable negotiator, could deny access to the United States’ waters from Canadian tankers. This trade relationship has changed and so must our economic strategy. Canada will not build energy security by offering handouts to largely American-owned oil sands projects, by building a pipeline that requires tenuous cooperation with the US, and by further integrating our economy with a volatile global market.
The pipeline would bring a supertanker carrying two million barrels of oil through the Salish Sea roughly every other day. These would be the biggest oil tankers ever to dock in B.C., and they put the coast and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on it at risk. And Premier Eby is going to stand by and let it happen.
Premier Eby had a choice. He could stand with British Columbians and First Nations to stand up to this project. Instead he’s already promised not to fight it, putting our economy, our coast, and all the communities that depend on them at risk.
That’s what status-quo politics looks like: an inability to stand firm against corporate interests. The BC Greens are the only party willing to defend our lands, our waters, and our jobs and say no to this project. We will fight for the coast and ensure public money goes into our communities, not out of them, to generate clean energy and home retrofits that cut your monthly bills, create good union jobs here in B.C., and ensure a healthy future for this generation and the next. It’s time to believe in better.”
— BC Green Party Leader Emily Lowan
“People in the Sea to Sky woke up today to find out their backyard is on an oil pipeline map. Alberta’s own documents show an alternate corridor through Pemberton, Whistler, and Squamish, and down to Howe Sound or the Sunshine Coast. Ottawa just put this project on the fast track, the route is still wide open and Premier Eby isn’t doing anything about it.
We know what a spill does here. In 2005, a rail spill on the Cheakamus River killed hundreds of thousands of fish. Howe Sound has spent decades coming back to life. The herring returned, the whales are slowly coming back. Now we are threatening all of that, along with the rivers, salmon runs, economies, and drinking water that communities from Lillooet to Gibsons depend on for Danielle Smith’s pipedream.
This is a gift to oil mega-corporations, and the risk falls on the people who live here. Our tourism economy, our fishing, and our way of life aren’t bargaining chips. I will fight for these communities even if Premier Eby won’t. The BC Greens will stand with First Nations and with every community on this map to protect this beautiful place and all the jobs and economies that depend on it.”
— Jeremy Valeriote, BC Green candidate for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky