Sustaining Canada’s Reputation
October 31, 2016
Canada has a great reputation as a country of builders. Due to our vast geography and rugged terrain, we needed to utilize great ingenuity in constructing railways, roads and seaways across our country. Our engineering marvels include the Welland Canal, Canadian Pacific Railway (with its numerous tunnels and bridges), Trans-Canada Highway, and Niagara Falls hydroelectric generating plants.
These amazing structure are still with us today and have allowed Canadians to prosper.
However, recently much of this great building tradition has disappeared. We have become a nation of condominium builders. Our existing infrastructure is beginning to fail us and we lack the political will to begin construction on the mega-projects that are truly needed.
I firmly believe that when it comes to the mega-projects and infrastructure spend, it is the major Canadian pipelines that need to be built first.
Yes, we need to:
• Embrace alternative energy —m however, this will take time and there is no reason to ignore our existing, abundant oil/gas reserves. Let’s utilize our resources to fund the needed investments required to effectively bring the alternative energy sources on stream
• Ensure that they are built safely – if we can put a man on the moon and manufacture driverless vehicles, we can surely build a pipeline that will not leak and blow-up
• Accommodate and treat fairly our First Nations citizens — make the pipelines good deals for all Canadian to support
• Satisfy the environmentalists – I consider myself an environmentalist – however, I also consider myself a realist – pipelines are more efficient, cleaner and safer than rail and tanker-trucks
So please, let’s stop the end-less debate and roadblocks and start building the infrastructure we need now – pipelines. I hope Prime Minister Trudeau and his Liberal party grow a back-bone and start pushing these key projects ahead.
