This legislative session has been dominated by talk about getting Alberta’s energy products to market. In April, Kinder Morgan suspended non-essential construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project and gave itself a deadline of May 31, at which point the company may decide to cancel this project altogether.
Kinder Morgan does not want to begin the next, very expensive ($10Million/day), building phase of the project if there remains uncertainty about whether or not they can move pipeline product by tanker from their terminal in Burnaby.
The Prime Minister needs to reassure investors around the world that Canada is still open for business, and that big projects are still possible. Canadians are losing $43 Million every single day due to lack of pipeline capacity.
You can help advance TMX by taking time right now to sign my online petition e-1509 at petitions.ourcommons.ca before it closes for good on June 13. Tell the Prime Minister that tens of thousands of citizens want the Canadian Government to use its constitutional powers to get this project built now!
MLA Nathan Cooper and I sent a letter to Alberta’s Auditor General asking for a full costing of the government’s Coal Phase-out Plan, including buyouts paid to owners of the coal-fired power plants, subsidies to consumers to cap electricity prices, and backstopping financial losses inside the Balancing Pool. Alberta has traditionally had a stable, affordable, and competitive electricity system—these major changes could have big impacts on taxpayers and ratepayers in our province.
Similar green power rollouts, in jurisdictions like Ontario, have resulted in large increases in consumer electricity costs and left taxpayers with a huge future debt load.
Neighbour Day is coming on Saturday, June 16. Please contact me if you’d like me to drop by your neighbourhood events throughout the summer.
Prasad Panda
