Fellow Canadians, I have your interest at heart!
His name is Thomas Mulcair. Tom suddenly appeared in Washington this week where he expressed his opposition against Keystone XL (KXL) with US lawmakers and business executives. Here we have Canadian government officials pushing hard to get KXL approved and this guy out of nowhere comes out to undermine the project by claiming the Canadian government is ?playing people for fools.?
I do not understand how he can speak against a major project of national interest as a?member of parliament. Canada is currently losing an estimated $27 billion a year because of discounts; KXL is an another important piece of the solution puzzle that Tom decided to bash just like he did opposing northern gateway into BC.
Mulcair said in an interview. ?We have never taken care of our energy security. We tend to forget that a 10-year supply to the U.S. is a 100-year supply to Canada. We are still going to need the energy supply to heat our homes and run our factories, whether it comes from the oilsands or it comes in the from natural gas. Fossil fuels are always going to be part of the mix.?
It looks like Tom is not aware that Canada has more than 175 billion barrels in reserves, the third largest in the world after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Our oil reserves would last us more than 750 years at a consumption rate of 4 million barrels per day ie we consume 100% of our production. Right now we consume less than 2.5 million barrels per day and export the rest to the US!
Tom wants us to keep all 750 years worth of supply all to ourselves in the name of energy security.
What kind of energy security is this guy talking about? In 100 years all of this resource might be worthless. Since he knows that in the near future fossil fuels are always going to be part of the energy mix, I?d rather we produce the oil and export it!
Thats not to mention that energy security involves laying pipelines from one coast to another to diversify our export markets and eliminate imports.
The oil and gas sector circulates more than $115 billion every year in the Canadian economy. The Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) released a study less than a year ago with the following projection:
Over the 2010-2035 period, in this conservative scenario that (recall) assumes only existing pipeline capacity, the CERI model projects that individual and corporate taxpayers in Alberta will pay some $328 billion to the federal government, all because of economic activity attributable to the oil sands.
That?s just from the oil sands that?s wealth for all Canadians.
So Tom you are going against my interest as a Canadian. Even though I live in Quebec, I directly benefit from Alberta?s economy. This was clearly a political stunt against the conservatives; any party in power would have also backed KXL given the important sums of revenue at stake here.
It?s a good thing Tom did what he did as leader of the opposition, helps me avoid voting to his like-minded clique in future federal elections.?This was uncalled for and simply a case of ADD. Tom should?ve scored points against his opponents without playing with the interest of more than 30 million people.
The energy industry is moving ahead with or without KXL, just in Canada railing is expected to handle 200,000 barrels per day by the end of 2013. For all the environment lovers, railing oil is dirtier and carries more risk than pipelines, something to think about.
Finally Tom, your actions speak louder than your words.?Didnt?you say:
The NDP will be a partner for the development of our energy resources when we form a government in 2015,
How can you develop energy resources without the proper infrastructure ie pipelines? Tom is confused and his expectation to form a government in 2015 might just turn out to be a pipe dream.?
Maybe Tom should focus his activities on issues that would not endanger Canada?s economy or interests not to mention his political career.
What do you think?
