EDITORIAL – Forget about putting my tax dollars into a pipeline
(Kinder Morgan photo)
WHATEVER HAPPENED to free enterprise in this country?
Texas-based Kinder Morgan’s threat to pull the plug on Trans Mountain if jurisdictional squabbles aren’t resolved by the end of May has sent both the Alberta and federal governments scurrying to their bank accounts and promising tax dollars to keep the project on track.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has gone as far as to consider buying it outright. If Albertans want to buy themselves a pipeline that may or may not be built, that’s up to them.
It’s an entirely different matter, though, when Justin Trudeau talks about putting up federal dollars. That means, money from the pockets of you and me.
Mel Rothenburger’s Armchair Mayor editorials appear Mondays through Thursdays on CFJC- TV. His Armchair Mayor column is published Saturdays on ArmchairMayor.ca and CFJC Today. Contact him at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I would much prefer my tax dollars to foster value-added enterprise or to support energy-gathering projects to further move us away from fossil fuels usage.
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Politics, by its very nature, adopts an extremely short term perspective which has more to do with the interests of political parties, and their leaders, than it does with the good of the country, province, or their citizens. In my opinion, this is the most prominent feature of the current debate.
If we were to adopt a more long term perspective, it becomes clear that the future hospitality of our planet to our species, and others, must be the defining consideration. We cannot, in good conscience, continue to borrow from the welfare of our descendants.
We have, and are rapidly improving, the technology to convert our economic and energy systems to a renewable model. Nations, and economies, who can get ahead of the global curve will enjoy a huge competitive advantage as the next “industrial revolution “ unfolds.
Real leaders would encourage and facilitate the process.
Unless, and until, we see the emergence of a new generation of such leaders, Canada seems destined to justify its long term character as “hewers of wood and drawers of water”.
We could be so much more.
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