Professional analysis of Teck may deflate political football

Unfortunately the decision by the Teck organization to end the Frontier oil sands project could not fail to become a political football.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.5474405.1582579247!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/fort-hills-suncor.jpg

Perhaps we can benefit from analysis about the decision from professionals in investing, economics, climate science, and engineering. Kyle Bakx explains for CBC News what the unexpected Teck decision to pull the plug on Frontier oil sands project means for the federal government, investors, climate and Indigenous groups.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4844680.1581444415!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/teck-frontier-infographic.jpg

The reasons for shelving Frontier are a mix of low investor interest and environmental concerns, Teck CEO Don Lindsay said. 

"Global capital markets are changing rapidly, and investors and customers are increasingly looking for jurisdictions to have a framework in place that reconciles resource development and climate change," Lindsay wrote. For environmental groups that want Canada's economy to transition away from fossil fuels, the shelving of the project was made all the more significant by the fact that the company's CEO cited the climate as one of the key reasons for the decision.The project was expected to produce about four million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year over 40 years…The Liberals are on both the winning and losing sides of the Teck decision. In the loss column, another company has turfed a major project on their watch. The investment climate in Canada's energy sector was already bad; this won't help1.

Scott Gilmore writing in MacLeans comments that every major player and investor understands the days of oil are numbered. Politicians are the only ones too shameless to say it out loud. He notes the betrayal of lifer politicians who won’t tell them the truth.

 Most of my friends and family back home either work in the oil patch or have jobs and businesses that directly depend on its health. So, I am especially sympathetic to the pain, worry and anger as their economy continues to sputter.
Who I am not sympathetic towards are cynical politicians like Kenney who continue to lie to Albertans in order to intentionally exacerbate this pain, worry and anger.

Kenney, Scheer, Teck, every major energy company that is not already in the oil sands, Bay Street, Wall Street, and the banking and insurance industries, all know that the days of oil are all but over. But the politicians are the only ones too frightened or too shameless to say it out loud.
There is no doubt that a concern about Canada’s regulatory process was the straw that broke the Teck camel’s back. But, in order for that to be the metaphorical last straw, the camel has to be already straining under several bales of hay.
The three heaviest bales in that load are the facts that the global price of oil is well below the point that would make the Frontier mine profitable, no one anywhere is predicting those prices will increase, and investors are fleeing the oil industry because the emerging global consensus is that if we don’t address climate change now the very existence of the human race is at stake.
That is not a claim being made by Greta Thurnberg, or a wild-eyed Extinction Rebellion activist. That comes directly from the multinational investment bank JPMorgan. In an internal report on the threat climate change poses to their investments, which was leaked last week, the bank’s economists noted, “We cannot rule out catastrophic outcomes where human life as we know it is threatened.”
Investors are not just avoiding Alberta’s oil sands, they don’t want to put money into oil anywhere, period. Furthermore, these investors, and even Teck itself, all publicly acknowledge that a carbon tax is the most effective way to combat climate change. And Kenney know this. But he not only won’t tell Albertans this difficult truth, he will spend millions of their own tax dollars on disinformation efforts to try and convince them it’s all just a conspiracy against them, that reality itself is betraying Albertans.2

Aaron Wherry, of CBC News, who has covered Parliament Hill since 2007 and has written for Maclean's, the National Post and the Globe and Mail and author of Promise & Peril, a book about Justin Trudeau's years in power writes that on its own merits, Teck Frontier probably didn't deserve to be framed as a litmus test of anything. On one hand, its economic viability was in serious doubt; on the other, its emissions weren't necessarily going to be decisive in Canada's pursuit of its international climate targets. But its loudest proponents and opponents framed it as a referendum on the future of either the oil sector or the climate.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.5445341.1582655444!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/teck-protest-in-calgary-extinction-rebellion-and-canada-action.jpg

 Essentially, he has tried to argue for doing three things simultaneously: advancing reconciliation, buttressing the short-term situation and medium-term future of the Prairie-based oil and gas sector, and reducing Canada's emissions for the long-term.
That balancing act is very vulnerable to attack. For one thing, those goals will sometimes come into direct conflict — through Indigenous communities objecting to a pipeline, environmentalists condemning development of the oilsands or Alberta politicians condemning new environmental regulations.
On any issue, the loudest voices are the ones least likely to ever be satisfied. And Trudeau can be accused of not moving fast enough or far enough in any one direction.3

Moving on this too slowly

Clifford Krauss reports in The New York Times that a major effort to expand development of Canada’s oil sands has collapsed shortly before a deadline for government approval, undone by investor concerns over oil’s future and the political fault lines between economic and environmental priorities.

Oil price and supply

 Kevin Birn, a vice president and oil-sands expert at the consultancy IHS Markit, estimated that for a project like Frontier to break even, the price of West Texas intermediate oil, the North American benchmark, would need to average $65 a barrel over a decade or more of operations. That is roughly $15 above the current price, and other analysts put the break-even figure at $80 to $85.
But until Sunday night, despite a regulatory review that cost it hundreds of millions of dollars, Teck Resources refused to give up. The company argued that its project, at a cost of 20.6 billion Canadian dollars ($15.5 billion), would create 7,000 construction and 2,500 operational jobs and eventually generate more than 70 billion Canadian dollars in local and national government revenue. Andrew Leach, a professor of energy economics at the University of Alberta, said some might read the project’s demise as a fatal blow to oil-sands development, but he interpreted Teck Resources’ decision as a pragmatic one.
“Teck was clear that it does not want a situation where one project has to answer for all of Canada’s climate policies and climate commitments,” he said. Moreover, he added, “global investors are not prepared to help a company the size of Teck to build a multibillion-dollar project. The global market was not prepared to be part of the political football.”
No new oil-sands mine has opened since 2018, but more than a dozen proposals are awaiting regulatory approval or investment decisions. Mr. Leach said some of those were economically and environmentally more viable than the Frontier project.
But resistance to new pipelines and high production costs have steadily reduced investments in oil-sands fields. There has been an exodus of international oil companies, including ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Equinor of Norway.
At the same time, there are questions about the market outlook. While world demand is roughly 100 million barrels a day, a figure that increases by 1 percent every year, the International Energy Agency projects that growth will begin to slow considerably in 2025. The agency says demand could fall to 67 million barrels a day in 2040, especially if governments increase regulation and electric cars become commonplace.
Reduced demand would focus production on places where it is cheapest, like Saudi Arabia.4

The professional analysis of this decision gives thinking people on all sides of these issues the opportunity to see some changes that may come to provide some more certainty for investment, indigenous reconciliation in the area of land use rights, government support for jobs more aligned with Canada’s international commitments to net zero emissions, and redefinition of market capitalism

Repairing capitalism for all stakeholders

to include all stakeholders, investors, employees, and communities in their corporate responsibilities.

References

1	(2020, February 25). Winners and losers from Teck's decision to pull the plug on .... Retrieved February 25, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/teck-frontier-trudeau-1.5473866
2	(2020, February 24). The real betrayal of Albertans? Lifer politicians who won't tell .... Retrieved February 25, 2020, from https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-real-betrayal-of-albertans-lifer-politicians-who-wont-tell-them-the-truth/
3	(2020, February 25). How Teck Frontier became a symbol of the future Canada .... Retrieved February 25, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/teck-frontier-mine-climate-pipeline-carbon-tax-1.5471315
4	(2020, February 24). Canada Oil-Sands Plan Collapses Over Politics and Economics. Retrieved February 25, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/business/energy-environment/frontier-oil-sands-canada.html

Canadian values and Wet'suwet'en protest

Ancient wisdom in the modern world can save us from the dangers of climate change, argues Wade Davis. Starting 24 mins into the podcast,

Wade Davis reveals the language of the colonizers in Columbia who promised to make the indigenous people “human”...When we actively seek restitution and reconciliation it involves, according to Justice Sinclair, dealing with three questions that concern all peoples: Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going? The colonizers have told indigenous people that all your answers have been wrong for all of your history.

 The Canadian anthropologist has spent a lifetime looking into what Indigenous peoples of the world can teach us. Now, 10 years after his 2009 Massey lectures called 'The Wayfinders,' he looks back on what has changed on our planet — for better and for worse.1

Canada undertakes the treaty process in the west to honour the Royal Proclamation of 1763. It costs huge amounts of money. We do it because we are decent people. We are also healing ourselves. We are becoming a better country. We are doing it for all Canadians. We are giving a signal to the world this is the kind of people we are!

The people we are!

Andrew Kurjata of CBC News reports an alternate route was too costly and posed greater environmental risks, the company says.

Need more money!

In an interview with reporters on Jan. 27, Coastal GasLink president David Pfeiffer was asked why the company wouldn't move the pipeline's path in order to avoid conflict. "We spent many years assessing multiple routes through the Wet'suwet'en Territory, about six years," Pfeiffer said. "The current route was selected as the most technically viable and one that minimized impact to the environment." Mike Ridsdale, the Office of the Wet'suwet'en's environmental assessment co-ordinator, stated that the alternate route would have followed a path through Wet'suwet'en territory eyed for use by Pacific Northern Gas for an expansion and looping project. The rejected McDonnell Lake route would also run through Wet'suwet'en territory, but would pass farther north, toward Smithers. Mike Ridsdale of the Office of the Wet'suwet'en said Pacific Northern Gas has considered the route for its own pipeline project, depicted in purple.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.5465329.1581744733!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/mcdonnell-lake-route.jpg

In a letter provided to CBC by the Office of Wet'swuwet'en, Coastal GasLink says it explored the possibility of using the McDonnell Lake route through aerial and computer reviews, and by meeting with representatives of Pacific Northern Gas. The letter — dated Aug. 21, 2014 — also outlines reasons Coastal GasLink rejected the route, including:

 It would increase the pipeline's length by as much as 89 kilometres, upping both the environmental impact and as much as $800 million in capital costs. The pipeline's diameter, at 48 inches (121 cm), is too large to safely be installed along the route. (Pacific Northern's pipeline is between 10 and 12 inches (25-30 cm), and the proposed upgrade would be 24 inches or 60 cm.) The McDonnell Lake route would be closer to the urban B.C. communities of Smithers, Houston, Terrace and Kitimat. Re-routing the pipeline would impact an additional four First Nations who had not already been consulted by Coastal GasLink, which would add up to one year of delays to the construction process."From our perspective, the route was not feasible on the basis of those significant environmental and technical issues and therefore route examination ceased," said Coastal GasLink spokesperson Terry Cunha in a followup email to CBC.2

Shiri Pasternak, Professor of Criminology & Research Director at Yellowhead Institute Ryerson University, asks Wet'suwet'en: Why are Indigenous rights being defined by an energy corporation?

How much in subsidies?

But a substantial amount of financial support to First Nations are derived from public coffers. Rather than alleviate “systemic poverty” in communities directly, the B.C. government is channelling these dollars through energy companies. Therefore, making First Nation funding contingent upon support for pipeline deals.
The summary of financial benefits obtained by Yellowhead shows that B.C. will put up $1 million to the band in signing payments, $5 million in construction and in-service payments, and an estimated $40 million total in annual operation payments over 40 years. These numbers confirm amounts committed in a Natural Gas Benefits Agreement signed between the parties.
As the RCMP descend on Wet'suwet'en territory it is worthwhile to reflect on how social license is achieved by industry to access Indigenous territories.
The provincial government has downloaded its constitutional obligations to energy companies to determine the scope and assertion of Aboriginal rights.
A hand-in-glove system, the B.C. government has supported the current raids through financial incentives that have forced communities apart.
With upwards of $7 billion on the line in government subsidies, the interests of Coastal GasLink’s viability appears to have been put far ahead of Wet'suwet'en rights, title and justice.3

The Assembly of First Nations declares Indigenous peoples are caretakers of Mother Earth and realize and respect her gifts of water, air and fire.

  First Nations peoples’ have a special relationship with the earth and all living things in it. This relationship is based on a profound spiritual connection to Mother Earth that guided indigenous peoples to practice reverence, humility and reciprocity. It is also based on the subsistence needs and values extending back thousands of years. Hunting, gathering, and fishing to secure food includes harvesting food for self, family, the elderly, widows, the community, and for ceremonial purposes. Everything is taken and used with the understanding that we take only what we need, and we must use great care and be aware of how we take and how much of it so that future generations will not be put in peril.
Environmental degradation affects the health and well-being of not only the First Nations people but all peoples of North America and the world in many ways. First Nations peoples do not yet know all the ways harmful man-made substances affects fish, wildlife, habitat, and human beings. However, First Nations people are aware that pollutants and contaminants, especially those originating from industrial development, have negative consequences for the health of all living things, including humans. Industrial contamination and disruption of wildlife habitat combine to reduce the supply and purity of traditional foods and herbal medicines. Finally, degradation erodes the quality of life dependent on the purity of the land, water, flora and fauna, and further affects Indigenous people’s cultures, languages and spiritual health and well-being.
First Nations peoples can demonstrate how, in asserting their land use and rights, economic initiatives can be both profitable and sustainable for future generations. First Nation traditional knowledge has provided our people with the tools to care for Mother Earth and our sacred sites. This knowledge can be shared with industry for the betterment and survival of all peoples4

The problems faced by the principles involved in building a gas pipeline to the BC coast are possibly resolved by spending more money

Money from taxpayer

to build on a mutually agreeable route and even more money to honour Canadian values in the commitments the Government has made to meet GHG emission goals and net zero dates.

Commitment to the Planet

It provides hope that some serious jurisdictional matters for nation to nation discussions

An example to end colonialism

on indigenous reconciliation can be established.

References

1	(2020, February 18). Wade Davis - CBC.ca. Retrieved February 20, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/saving-the-planet-means-listening-to-indigenous-peoples-wade-davis-1.5467071
2	(2020, February 16). Why Coastal GasLink says it rejected a pipeline route .... Retrieved February 17, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wetsuweten-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-alternative-path-1.5464945
3	(2020, February 7). Wet'suwet'en: Why are Indigenous rights being defined by an .... Retrieved February 20, 2020, from http://theconversation.com/wetsuweten-why-are-indigenous-rights-being-defined-by-an-energy-corporation-130833
4	(n.d.). Honouring Earth | Assembly of First Nations. Retrieved February 20, 2020, from http://www.afn.ca/honoring-earth/

Fundamental principles of Canadian values in Wet'suwet'en protest

The Wet'suwet'en protest brings into focus values that should help Canadians today and tomorrow with issues of conflict between economic progress and respect for reconciliation with indigenous nations.

Canadian values in conflict

Peter Bisson, SJ, Provincial Assistant for Indigenous Relations comments that the current conflict between the Wet’suwet’en First Nations and Coastal GasLink has to do with a natural gas pipeline that Coastal Gaslink wants to build, some of which would pass through traditional Wet’suwet’en territory in the northwestern central interior of British Columbia.

Authority in question

The Wet’suwet’en elected chiefs and councils have approved the project, but the hereditary chiefs have not. The hereditary chiefs have proposed at least two alternative routes over the years that would pass over less ecologically and culturally sensitive lands, but the company found these proposals, among other difficulties, too expensive.

 Delgamuukw, and subsequent Supreme Court decisions, clarified many questions about Indigenous land titles, but did not resolve all of them or implement them. The Supreme Court decisions certainly mean fair compensation for mutually agreed-to use of Indigenous lands and may imply deeper consultation than has already occurred. Little, if any legislation, that would implement the Supreme Court’s decision has been passed, which is one of the basic reasons why there seems to be an impasse now between the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, Coastal GasLink, the government of B.C. and the federal government.1

Eugene Kung and Gavin Smith report that to uphold the rule of law, the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal title and governance must be meaningfully applied in Crown decision-making.

 Canada’s Constitution and judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada recognize the pre-existing nature of Aboriginal rights and title, which are interwoven with Indigenous laws and governance. Furthermore, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which both the federal and BC governments have committed to implement, recognizes “the urgent need to respect and promote the inherent rights of indigenous peoples which derive from their political, economic and social structures and from their cultures, spiritual traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to their lands, territories and resources.”
Importantly, the source of the inherent rights affirmed by UNDRIP is the pre-existing governance and culture of each Indigenous nation itself — in other words, UNDRIP recognizes rather than creates the rights. The Supreme Court of Canada similarly recognizes in Delgamuukw that constitutionally protected Aboriginal title is not created by Canadian law; rather, Aboriginal title “arises from the prior occupation of Canada by aboriginal peoples.” The SCC also described the system of Clans and houses with Hereditary Chiefs as “the fundamental premise of both Gitksan and the Wet’suwet’en peoples.” Canadian law is playing catch-up by slowly recognizing these rights and governance structures.2

Andrew Kurjata of CBC News reports the alternate route of the Coastal GasLink was too costly and posed greater environmental risks than a route endorsed by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. In an interview with reporters on Jan. 27, Coastal GasLink president David Pfeiffer was asked why the company wouldn't move the pipeline's path in order to avoid conflict. "We spent many years assessing multiple routes through the Wet'suwet'en Territory, about six years," Pfeiffer said. "The current route was selected as the most technically viable and one that minimized impact to the environment." Mike Ridsdale, the Office of the Wet'suwet'en's environmental assessment co-ordinator, stated that the alternate route would have followed a path through Wet'suwet'en territory eyed for use by Pacific Northern Gas for an expansion and looping project. The rejected McDonnell Lake route would also run through Wet'suwet'en territory, but would pass farther north, toward Smithers. Mike Ridsdale of the Office of the Wet'suwet'en said Pacific Northern Gas has considered the route for its own pipeline project, depicted in purple.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.5465329.1581744733!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/mcdonnell-lake-route.jpg

(Pacific Northern Gas/B.C. Oil and Gas Commission)

Ridsdale said the route follows "already heavily disturbed areas along the Highway 16 corridor, and away from highly known cultural areas, as well as away from the Skeena headwaters of salmon spawning areas that the Wet'suwet'en rely on." In a letter provided to CBC by the Office of Wet'swuwet'en, Coastal GasLink says it explored the possibility of using the McDonnell Lake route through aerial and computer reviews, and by meeting with representatives of Pacific Northern Gas. The letter — dated Aug. 21, 2014 — also outlines reasons Coastal GasLink rejected the route, including:

 It would increase the pipeline's length by as much as 89 kilometres, upping both the environmental impact and as much as $800 million in capital costs. The pipeline's diameter, at 48 inches (121 cm), is too large to safely be installed along the route. (Pacific Northern's pipeline is between 10 and 12 inches (25-30 cm), and the proposed upgrade would be 24 inches or 60 cm.) The McDonnell Lake route would be closer to the urban B.C. communities of Smithers, Houston, Terrace and Kitimat. Re-routing the pipeline would impact an additional four First Nations who had not already been consulted by Coastal GasLink, which would add up to one year of delays to the construction process."From our perspective, the route was not feasible on the basis of those significant environmental and technical issues and therefore route examination ceased," said Coastal GasLink spokesperson Terry Cunha in a followup email to CBC.3

The delay in identification of a solution that protects reconciliation as directed by the Supreme Court and the United Nations will only raise the cost and risk of this investment that is connected to employment in a sunset gas and oil industry.

References

1	(2020, February 17). Understanding the Wet'suwet'en - Coastal GasLink .... Retrieved February 19, 2020, from http://jesuits.ca/news-detail?TN=NEWS-20200217092654
2	(2019, February 1). Canada's “prove it” approach to Aboriginal title - Policy Options. Retrieved February 19, 2020, from https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/february-2019/canadas-prove-it-approach-to-aboriginal-title/
3	(2020, February 16). Why Coastal GasLink says it rejected a pipeline route .... Retrieved February 17, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wetsuweten-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-alternative-path-1.5464945

Bernie Sanders Broken Democracy and Indigenous communities

The conflict in Canada that places the investment in gas pipelines to advance progress in the export of energy at odds with Wet'suwet'en decisions about use of the unceded territory that is their traditional land base invites consideration of the role of capitalism in 2020 in enriching an oligarchy with little concern for the majority of citizens.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4981127.1560197696!/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/gidimt-en-checkpoint-jan-7.JPG

  Robert Reich says capitalism is broken and we need to fix it.

 Robert Reich says capitalism is broken and we need to fix it1

Nick Bunker, Policy Analyst, Washington Center for Equitable Growth explains that predistribution, part of capitalism being “rigged” according to Robert Reich, is a rather opaque buzzword. He offers a deeper look at what it means and why it might matter for our thinking efficiency and reducing income inequality.

 The term originated in an essay by Yale University professor Jacob Hacker and has caught on more in the United Kingdom than in the United States. In short, this approach prioritizes policies that more directly intervene in the labor market to reduce income inequality over polices that redistribute incomes after taxes are levied. For policymakers concerned about the incomes of those at the bottom of the income ladder, a predistributionist approach would favor raising wages, perhaps by increasing the minimum wage, over increasing government transfers to those workers in the form of, say, earned income tax credits.2

Bill McGarvey asks “What does Bernie Sanders’ win say about the future of capitalism?” “The American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion,” said Philip Alston, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights in a 2018 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice a myth, especially for minorities and women, but also for many middle-class white workers.” This disconnect between rhetoric and reality is a foundational element in Eric Cheyfitz’s book “The Disinformation Age: The Collapse of Liberal Democracy in the United States”. He is the Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters at Cornell University. His  teaching focused on literature by and about Native Americans and African Americans that ran counter to traditional American narratives diagnosis.

 In The Disinformation Age he argues that the notion of American exceptionalism has been a dominant narrative since our founding and that after World War II—when there was an expanding middle class, labor unions were strong and there was some movement toward economic inclusion of women and minorities—that narrative still had some credibility. Since the Reagan administration, there has been an exponential increase in income inequality that has skyrocketed through six presidencies, Democratic and Republican alike, right through President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump… Our inability to address the catastrophic issues we face is rooted in the fact that “we have trapped ourselves within the limits of capitalism’s imagination,” he writes. In the United States, the boundary markers of those limits are found in our sacred devotion to the concepts of property, profit, production and progress. “These four terms in conjunction with each other,” he says, “produce and guarantee the perpetuation of wealth inequality and environmental disaster.” The path to breaking free from those limits in Cheyfitz’s analysis can be found in “the theory and practice of Indigenous communities.” The traditional foundation upon which native life is built is “based in the idea of balance (kinship, reciprocity and sustainability)” not competition and productivity. Given what is at stake politically, morally and ecologically, failing to recognize the moment we are in and the opportunities available to us will have consequences far beyond a simple failure of the imagination.3

Two cultures

Andrew Kurjata of CBC News reports the alternate route of the Coastal GasLink was too costly and posed greater environmental risks than a route endorsed by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. In an interview with reporters on Jan. 27, Coastal GasLink president David Pfeiffer was asked why the company wouldn't move the pipeline's path in order to avoid conflict. "We spent many years assessing multiple routes through the Wet'suwet'en Territory, about six years," Pfeiffer said. "The current route was selected as the most technically viable and one that minimized impact to the environment." Mike Ridsdale, the Office of the Wet'suwet'en's environmental assessment co-ordinator, stated that the alternate route would have followed a path through Wet'suwet'en territory eyed for use by Pacific Northern Gas for an expansion and looping project. The rejected McDonnell Lake route would also run through Wet'suwet'en territory, but would pass farther north, toward Smithers. Mike Ridsdale of the Office of the Wet'suwet'en said Pacific Northern Gas has considered the route for its own pipeline project, depicted in purple. (Pacific Northern Gas/B.C. Oil and Gas Commission) Ridsdale said the route follows "already heavily disturbed areas along the Highway 16 corridor, and away from highly known cultural areas, as well as away from the Skeena headwaters of salmon spawning areas that the Wet'suwet'en rely on." In a letter provided to CBC by the Office of Wet'swuwet'en, Coastal GasLink says it explored the possibility of using the McDonnell Lake route through aerial and computer reviews, and by meeting with representatives of Pacific Northern Gas. The letter — dated Aug. 21, 2014 — also outlines reasons Coastal GasLink rejected the route, including:

 It would increase the pipeline's length by as much as 89 kilometres, upping both the environmental impact and as much as $800 million in capital costs. The pipeline's diameter, at 48 inches (121 cm), is too large to safely be installed along the route. (Pacific Northern's pipeline is between 10 and 12 inches (25-30 cm), and the proposed upgrade would be 24 inches or 60 cm.) The McDonnell Lake route would be closer to the urban B.C. communities of Smithers, Houston, Terrace and Kitimat. Re-routing the pipeline would impact an additional four First Nations who had not already been consulted by Coastal GasLink, which would add up to one year of delays to the construction process."From our perspective, the route was not feasible on the basis of those significant environmental and technical issues and therefore route examination ceased," said Coastal GasLink spokesperson Terry Cunha in a followup email to CBC.4

https://i.cbc.ca/1.5465329.1581744733!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/mcdonnell-lake-route.jpg

The possibility that capitalism today is rigged in favour of accumulation of wealth by an oligarchy that has little regard for economic inequality may be at the core of investment policies that put profit before people.

Profit priority

This capitalism stands in stark contrast to the traditional foundation upon which native life is built, in the virtues of balance like kinship, reciprocity, and sustainability.

References

1	(2018, November 5). Capitalism for the few | CBC News - CBC.ca. Retrieved February 17, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/capitalism-for-the-few-1.3263904
2	(2015, June 18). What is predistribution? | World Economic Forum. Retrieved February 14, 2020, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/06/what-is-predistribution/
3	(2020, January 2). The future is in our hands—not theirs | Canadian Centre for .... Retrieved February 12, 2020, from https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/future-our-hands%E2%80%94not-theirs
4	(2020, February 13). What does Bernie Sanders' win say about the future of .... Retrieved February 14, 2020, from https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/02/13/what-does-bernie-sanders-win-say-about-future-capitalism
5	(2020, February 16). Why Coastal GasLink says it rejected a pipeline route .... Retrieved February 17, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wetsuweten-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-alternative-path-1.5464945