The Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives is calling out the prime minister over the purchase of the Kinder Morgan Pipeline.
Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, a researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says the project will end up costing $12 billion.
He says the money could have been used to move away from fossil fuels.
“If we were just going to spend that on the green energy initiatives, we already have the Low Carbon Economy Fund that the federal government created, it only has two billion dollars in it so adding 12 billion be a significant increase to low carbon initiatives.”
He says it could have also been used create a transition program to get employees out of the
Mertins-Kirkwood says the federal government is hedging their bets on ‘risky’ assumptions, like global demand for Alberta oil increasing, and being able to sell it back to private business.
“They’re making a lot of assumptions for that to pan out but even in a best case scenario, if the government gets its money back, we’ve still forced this pipeline through that most of the country doesn’t want.”
Ultimately, he says the taxpayers will be on the hook if the pipeline fails.
Mertins-Kirkwood also believes the move will make Canada less credible when it comes to global climate change initiatives.
The federal government announced the $4.5 billion purchase Tuesday after the project was met with fierce opposition from the BC government and First Nations communities.
File photo
Story by Brittany Wentzell
@BrittWentzell
