Trans Mountain existing assets valued at $550 million in 2007.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau has proposed sacrificing Canadian taxpayers to bail out an uneconomic U.S. pipeline owned by former Enron executives.
Let’s parse the fantastic numbers, because they will affect all of us. And the bill for taxpayers won’t be $4.5 billion as Morneau claims, but much closer to $20 billion, says economist Robyn Allan.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced on May 29 that the Government of Canada will buy the existing Trans Mountain pipeline system from Kinder Morgan at a price of $4.5 billion.
Three prominent Quebec-area Indigenous chiefs were among the hundreds of people who gathered in Montreal on Sunday to protest the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.
Assembly of First Nations regional Chief Ghislain Picard, Mohawk Chief Serge Simon and Innu Chief Jean-Charles Pietacho spoke out against the project, citing the need to show solidarity with First Nations and other groups in British Columbia who are fighting against it.
Robyn Allan laughs after a nonstop hour during which the economist has elaborated on a previous hour-long conversation explaining why the Trans Mountain Expansion Project should be stopped in its tracks.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the government to take the money it was planning to use to compensate Kinder Morgan investors in the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and instead invest in clean energy jobs.
Last week Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the government is willing to “provide indemnity” to any investors if “unnecessary delays” cause costs to rise.
“What we should be doing instead is using that fossil fuel subsidy, using the proposed money … to invest in clean energy jobs for today and the future,” said Singh Tuesday.
The Trudeau federal government has made itself a pathetic hostage to a Texas-based pipeline company known for its cheapness and debt.
The economic sleeziness of the drama, which should upset most Canadians, has been largely ignored by the financial mainstream press.
But here’s the rub: Kinder Morgan doesn’t have the money it needs to twin a high-risk $7.4 billion pipeline, and has been looking for a way out for some time.
There is growing consensus that the world is going through an energy transition. Everybody has heard politicians or CEOs of large energy companies making that statement.
