Duelling Trans Mountain pipeline rallies set for Saturday

Two separate rallies take place Saturday over the Trans Mountain pipeline — one for, and one against.

In one corner stands Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, one of the leaders of an anti-pipeline rally organized by the Coast Protectors.

In the other corner stands former Haisla chief and sitting Liberal MLA Ellis Ross and Huu-ay-aht Chief Robert Dennis, who are among the speakers scheduled for a pro-pipeline rally at Jack Poole Plaza Sat., March 10, starting at 2 p.m.

Stewart Muir, executive director for Resource Works, which is helping to organize the pro-pipeline rally, says it is intended as a counterpoint to the anti-pipeline activism that lends to the perception that the majority of Canadians are against the pipeline expansion. Polling suggests there is a silent majority of Canadians who support the project, Muir said.

“We just want to get out there and spend 90 minutes to make it known that there’s lots of people who are willing to proudly say they support a quality project,” Muir said.

Fort St. John businesses including Surerus Pipeline and Macro Industries have been selected to build parts of the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion through the B.C. interior.

Fort St. John residents Alan Yu and Benjamin Haab are travelling to Vancouver for the pro-pipeline rally, as is Ian Fife from Fort Nelson.

"This is the first time that the small, grassroots pro-hydrocarbon groups like FSJ for LNG are banding together in a rally," Yu said.

"I am hoping that this is just the start of a unified effort so we can effectively counter the well-financed, united, well-organized anti-hydrocarbon opposition."

Speakers at the pro-pipeline rally include an Alberta oil field worker, Vivian Krause – an independent researcher who has documented the funding of Canadian environmental groups by American philanthropic foundations – and Ben Lawton, B.C. regional director of Generation Screwed, a group of young conservatives and libertarians who say their futures are being mortgaged with unsustainable government debt.

Ross, a former chief of the Haisla First Nation in Kitimat, is among the First Nations leaders in B.C. who has supported resource industries – particularly a liquefied natural gas industry. It is worth noting, however, that his support for oil pipelines has not been categorical. While he was chief of the Haisla, Ross took a position against the Northern Gateway project, while aggressively supporting LNG projects.

As for Generation Screwed, Lawton said his message will be for young Canadians.

“Our generation is getting short-changed,” said the 25-year-old Simon Fraser University political science major. “We’re losing billions of dollars of revenue without having pipelines, and without being pro-technology, pro-science and pro-development."

He referred to the discount that Alberta oil producers get for their oil, due to a lack of access to foreign markets, which requires access to tidewater.

“The political barriers to these things are not only, at face value, costing us an opportunity cost, but the proposals to offset these losses is yet more government spending," Lawton said. "Every time the government comes along and tries to stifle economic development, it also gets paid for via new social programs and new social spending the to offset the costs of not having these things.”

— with Alaska Highway News files