| "So the Alcan p group p has v won n the National 1 Energy + _ Board’s hand, and the consortium of multinational oil companies known as Canadian Arctic Gas Line _ Ltd. has bitten the dust. The prize is approval to_

2 2, July 13, 1977 - North Shore News

build a pipeline across part of northern Canada, from American oilfields in Alaska’to existing _pipelines in northern Alberta, and thence to the United States markets. It is ‘an express line’ to

carry gas directly to the States. The winners are

talking about the tremendous. difficulties they have yet to overcome, and the losers are gnashing

their corporate teeth and saying nothing.

The whole thing reminds

me of the instruction given to.

a typewriter salesman. ‘Don’t ask the prospect whether he wants a type- writer or not. Instead, ask him if he wants a red one or a black one.”’ fashion we have been sold the whole idea of a pipeline. I think this is probably the biggest snow job ever exper- ienced by Canadians, and we’ve had-a great many others to compare it with.

Do we want the pipeline? is it in our national interest to have such a pipeline? The National Energy Board says

.. that Canada will benefit . because a spur to be built on

the. pipeline will allow Canada’s own Arctic gas to be fed into the tube and moved to Canadian markets which the NEB says will be requiring the gas by the early 1980’s. What they don’t say is that Canada is still a net exporter of petroleum, and if this export were to cease we. would have enough oil and gas to last us until the 1990’s—without using up the

reserves of the McKenzie .

valley.

‘Supporters of the pipeline -say that it will be beneficial. I assume they mean that it will create employment and will not cause too much environ- - mental damage. I think both

of those premises bear.

looking at. The. environ- mental impact of the pipeline _can be guessed at—and it will in no way be beneficial to the land it crosses. The impact of a project of the size of the line on the Canadian economy (it is estimated at

VERIFIED CIRCULATION. 46,000. «|

In just this

$10 billion, give or take ten per cent) has yet" ‘to be calculated. ~~

STEEL MILLS REOPENED —

It can be surmised, how- ever, that it will mean the reopening of the Ontario steel mills to supply some of the thousands of miles of steel pipe needed. The mills employ _ people, and the money paid to them -is

supposed to ‘stimulate’ the economy of the area invol-

ved. The pipeline project is short term, and I think that the probable consequences

are not all that attractive.

The mills. will .start. up, workers will flock to the steel

‘towns in the same way that

they came to the shipyards during. the war. And when

‘the pipe order is finished,

what then? The demand for steel pipe in | mammoth

quantities i is not high enough - t@ maintain the sieel towns.

Building up big work forces

to do short term projects can easily result in massive

unemployment and great

strain on welfare systems ..When the projects are over.

Pipeline crews, thousands of men making ‘good mon- ey,’ will be spending millions in the communities that the

‘pipeline passes through. The

effect of all this money on local economies and _ local cultures is not always bene-

‘ficial. Alcoholism and bewil-

derment are the rule, rather than the exception, for people who live in areas where massive construction jobs are created. The crews will go away leaving the locals with a lot of muddy

11139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M. 244 :

OFFICE/NEWS: (604) 980-0511 ‘CLASSIFIED: 980-3464 CIRCULATION: 986-1337 |

" cause a great deal of damage

_incapable of managing its

_has virtually no control over

roads, empty ‘accommodat-_ ions and an artifically balloo- © ned local economy.

“Over half the money ‘required will be raised in Canadian markets’’ say the- promoters. That’s good? The demand for capital, espec- jially risk capital, is high in Canada, and has been high for some time. A project of this size could quite conceiv- ably cause a drying up of the Canadian money market and

to Canadian -business and ‘Canadian enterpreneurship.

The balance of the money spent in Canada will be - American money. American money must be spent to buy American goods, and Amer- ican goods are made with American labour. Goods . made with American labour

will not be made with

Canadian labour. Compren- _ ez-vous? The ~° Americans | always were better traders

than us, and now they are

exporting their unemploy- ment. >

BUNGLING IMCOMPETENCE

The ‘Canadian _govern- ment, through the NEB, ‘has endorsed the Alcan proposal, and the required approval by

_the Cabinet is almost a rubber stamp. Surely the

bungling imcompetence: of.

_the federal. government. ‘is | well enough known to make that a loud- warning - to Canadian: taxpayers. Clearly

way out of a wet paper bag, ‘the federal government has, over the past few years, proven itself to be. synony- mous with graft, naivete and incompetence. As revealed in the Sky Shops affair and in the sale of Candu reactors, — the federal government has | come off very badly when-.

ever its laundry was washed — in public. The government

either the civil ‘Service or its _ estimates.

We have let our civil @ service grow until it is our. largest. employer in ‘the country. Over 40% of .the GNP goes towards support- 7% ing the bureaucracy. In my §& opinion the Canadifin civil Fa service is sick with the kind —% of disease that makes an §& organism swell up before it

i dies. |

Featherbedding, nep-

I otism, favouritism, graft, Hi rigidity, incompetence. and

stupidity are dismayingly prevalent in all branches of

NEB is a branch of the same ‘tree, and I would be very &

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- Publisher Peter Speck

Assoclate Publiaher Rob’: “Graham /Edlitee-la-Chitef Neel Wright/News Guillermo Lam/Piotes Elis- worth Dickson/Production Marna Leiren/Advertis- ing Kristi Vidler/Clnsaified Berni Hilliatd/Circula- tion Yvonne Chapman/Administration Barbara Haywood/Accounts Sylvia Sorensen.

' surprised if the NEB was any ff | vo *« Cape a” r Ford Trocks— | a exception to the rot affecting & a Ty a HEE oT ioe - the rest of the tree. And they J EEA al § ae i : | )

teli us we need a pipeline, and where it should be built, ag and who should build it. -

The life of the Alaskan oilfields has been estimated as eight years. What hap- pens to the Canadian reser- ves when the Americans run

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North Shore News, founded in 1969 as a an

independent community newspaper . qualified under Schedule 111,. Dart ii nn

Paragraph 111. of the Excise Tax. “Act, is published cach Wednesday by thé. North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore.

Second Class Mall Registration Number 3885,

ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 1977 NORTH _, SHORE FREE PRESS LTD. All rights reserved.

"demands by 1985 at the

out of oil? We -are alrendy ' looking at shortages, and we are in no position to be _ exporting oll and gas when it is mooted that we will be © unable . to’ supply our own,

<

hy. Mi .

“LINCOLN, MERCURY,