Released on November 26, 2014
Pipelines Safer Than Rail Cars for OilToday in the Legislative Assembly, Premier Brad Wall introduced a motion supporting construction of the Energy East Pipeline and calling on Ontario and Quebec not to add unnecessary regulatory barriers to the approval process.
“The Energy East Pipeline will be good for the economy in all parts of Canada, including Ontario and Quebec,” Wall said. “It means billions of dollars of new economic activity, new jobs and new tax revenue, with the majority of that new revenue and activity going to Ontario and Quebec.
“And yet those two provinces are creating new barriers, which will harm their own economies and the economies of western provinces who are net contributors to the billions of dollars of equalization payments Ontario and Quebec receive each year. It doesn’t make any sense.
“In addition, moving oil by pipeline is far safer and far more environmentally-friendly than moving it by rail car, which is what we are doing now. Why would they oppose that?“
Wall said there is already a stringent approval process for new pipeline projects through the National Energy Board, yet Quebec and Ontario are now talking about inventing their own approval processes.
“This is not how Canada should work,” Wall said. “We should be removing barriers to economic growth, not inventing new ones.”
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For more information, contact:
Kathy Young
Executive Council
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0425
Email: kathy.young@gov.sk.ca
Cell: 306-526-8927