Canada: Energy & pipelines February 2020 –

Canadian Encyclopedia Pipelines in Canada
Canada: Energy & pipelines, environment & climate change 2018-20

Five climate issues Canada will have to tackle in 2020
From reducing car emissions to the decision over a proposed oil sands mine, here are the climate issues Canadians should have on their radar this year.

Wet’suwet’en solidarity protests: Here’s a chronological look at rail disruptions (with video)
Feb. 6 – Protesters in Belleville, Ont., east of Toronto, start stopping railway traffic.
Feb. 7 – Via Rail halts service along one of its busiest routes because of the Belleville blockade. All travel between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal is cancelled. …
Feb. 13 – CN shuts down its operations in Eastern Canada. The railway says blockades have ended in Manitoba and may come down soon in British Columbia, but the orders of a court in Ontario have yet to be enforced and continue to be ignored.

‘Up to Justin Trudeau’ to resolve rail blockade, Legault says
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller seeks meeting with Indigenous leaders over “highly volatile situation.”
Legault made the comments one day after Trudeau’s Quebec political lieutenant, Pablo Rodriguez, met with Quebec Transport Minister François Bonnardel in Quebec City to discuss the blockades, which started Monday.
The two agreed to create a joint committee to deal with the crisis that has paralyzed commuter train service on the Candiac line where Kahnawake Mohawks are manning a barricade.

Don’t confuse support for the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs with the spirit of Idle No More
By Ken Coates, senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the author of #IdleNoMore and the Remaking of Canada.
(Globe & Mail) The Wet’suwet’en situation has proven to be complex, reflecting legal and political uncertainty about the nature of decision-making in the region. While a group of hereditary chiefs oppose the pipeline project, the chief and council of Witset First Nation – the largest band, elected through the Indian Act, within Wet’suwet’en Nation – support the project, as do what appears to be a large majority of First Nations’ members along the pipeline’s route.
Hereditary chiefs played a vital role in the campaign for the recognition of Indigenous land rights, and they have reason to expect active involvement in local political affairs. Other northern British Columbia First Nations incorporate hereditary chiefs into their formal decision-making processes. That has not been done, as yet, among the Wet’suwet’en.
But this situation over Indigenous rights has been complicated by some anti-pipeline activists looking to advance their cause.
Idle No More, in contrast, was a loosely managed movement that called on Indigenous peoples across Canada to champion local issues, to express their dissatisfaction with Canadian policy, and to celebrate Indigenous resilience. Hundreds of pop-up events happened across Canada, marked by their dancing, drumming and singing, their optimism, and the determination to ensure that Indigenous voices were heard by government, politicians and the public at large.
The Idle No More events were also overwhelmingly peaceful and legal. It was a matter of pride for supporters that they posed minimal disruption:
The current protests, however, focus on civil disobedience, deliberately working to inconvenience non-Indigenous peoples. And as the disruptions and costs mount, they risk giving Canadians the wrong impression about Indigenous peoples’ distinctive relationships with the natural-resource economy and pipelines. In the age of national commitment to reconciliation, the resource sector has emerged as the front line of national renewal and transformation. Indigenous communities have capitalized on a long series of court decisions in their favour to forge a new role in the energy industry. Indigenous employment and business activity have expanded dramatically.

7 February
Gary Mason: The lose-lose proposition that is the Teck Frontier oil sands project
The proposed $20-billion project is fraught with challenges for the Trudeau cabinet. It is forecast to emit 4.1 million tonnes of GHG emissions annually – a not-insignificant amount. The mine sits next to Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO world-heritage site and the largest national park in the country. Hardly ideal.
Politically, it’s entirely a lose-lose proposition for the Liberals. Approve it, and the government gets little to no credit in Alberta; the Liberals will still be loathed, Mr. Trudeau will still be hated. Elsewhere, they will be disdained by supporters who will feel betrayed, and who will see the decision as further evidence of the fraud many suspect the government’s climate plan to be. See Everything you need to know about the $20B Frontier oilsands mine as Liberal decision looms – The issue reflects a wider bid by the Trudeau government to support both environmental and economic interests in the country — an increasingly fraught balancing act (4 February)

Cost to build Trans Mountain pipeline jumps 70% to $12.6 billion
Delays and design changes have driven up the costs of the project, now expected to be in service by December 2022

5 February
What you need to know about the Coastal GasLink pipeline conflict
(CBC) The conflict over a natural gas pipeline in northwestern British Columbia is the latest flashpoint between resource development and Indigenous rights and title in a province where large swaths of territory are not covered by any treaty.
At the centre of the conflict is a multi-billion dollar natural gas project — touted as the largest private sector investment in Canadian history — and an assertion by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs that no pipelines can be built through their traditional territory without their consent.
The $6-billion, 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline has received approval from the province, and 20 First Nations band councils have signed agreements in support of the project, including five of the six band councils in the Wet’suwet’en nation.

3 February
In a major victory for Trans Mountain, Federal Court dismisses Indigenous appeal of project’s approval
In a unanimous 3-0 decision, the court ruled that Ottawa carried out “reasonable” and “meaningful” consultations with Indigenous peoples affected by the project’s construction before approving the pipeline for a second time.