Learning from our mistakes

Photo: geohistory.today/

Now, we are all in the pipeline business.

You can wish your children Merry Christmas for many years to come as we now start to pay off the $4.5 billion our government has committed to pay for a pipeline that the highest appeals court in the country has just declined. 

In a previous column, I indicated that I can see both sides of the argument to get our oil to market, both for and against.

What I could not see was why our government would step in with a guarantee to reward Trans Canada shareholders in a less then stable environment.

I guess it is always easier to gamble with someone else’s money. It now appears this was not a winning bet. 

To make matters worse, the work over the next few years, which it only makes sense to commit to now we are $4.5 billion in to it, is probably going to double the purchase price.

Don’t believe me? Check back in a couple of years and we will see who is closer. 

The point is, there is no private buyer in the market place (hence the Trans Canada deal) to take it over without a guarantee of success, so our insurance policy, the Liberal government, stepped in.

We are very likely in for a protracted secondary review process that will lead to more serious negotiations with the First Nations and a likely higher tab to do what we likely should never have started in the first place given the fragility of the west coast eco system. 

The theory is we learn from our mistakes, we will see…

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.