Enbridge Polls Northern Gateway Pipeline Updates and Details

Canada supports the NorthernGateway Pipeline? Ya Right?! Not according to all the data I have found. Update: Enbridge reports leak from U.S. pipeline as Northern Gateway hearings begin: Source 

Northern Gateway Pipeline Hearings Schedule 

Enbridge TransCanada Northern Gateway Tarsands Pipeline Public Hearings Schedule Start Jan. 10th 2012 Watch the Hearings online.  Public hearings on the Northern Gateway pipeline started today in BC . Livestream available 9am to 4 pm: http://gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/clf-nsi/prtcptngprcss/hrng-eng.html
With many restriction about how and what they can speak about, 4300 groups are scheduled to speak at Northern Gateway Hearings over the next year.
130 aboriginal groups in B.C. join forces to use “whatever means necessary” to stop the project. Change of Venue: January 10, 2012, in Kitamaat Village instead of Kitimat. : Livestream Link

Photo by: DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Hundreds of residence packed the hall on the first day of the Northern Gateway pipeline hearings today. I listened to the livestream. First Nations Chiefs spoke of thier tradition ways of life and the values the hold dear being in the line of fire. "The Haisla are facing a double-barrelled shotgun by the bringing of that oil by pipeline and shipping it by sea," Hereditary Chief Ken Hall Source
Haisla Nation Chief Ellis Ross spoke of industry repeatedly making promises to his people, lying, stealing, and destroying their way of life, then moving on as a pattern of business. He sited past experience with environmental damages that were painfully inadequate in  their ability to clean contaminated creeks while working with DFO.  The shoreline has only just begun to recover from past industries. He voiced his concerns that this process is just another 'process'. He made clear that his communities are concerned for their health, future and lands and their way of life regardless of the money involved. He sited 50-100 jobs is not worth destroying their territory. It is early in these hearings, but I too sense this process is contrived lip-service with a stacked deck.

Very few towns in BC have hearings scheduled, and mostly in industry owned towns.
In the past, industry has been known to flood these hearings with employees to undermine real people's concerns. The existing schedule does not take into account the massive wild salmon industry or tourist industries most at risk, nor the concerns for hundreds of oil tankers plying the BC coast. No hearings at all are planned for BC's largest communities. This is all our concerns. Now communities hardest hit by this threat have been removed from the hearing schedule.
 
Photo (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck) 

A woman from the Haisla First Nation beats a drum during a ceremony to open hearings for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project in Kitimaat Village, B.C., on Tuesday January 10, 2012. Source

"200 tankers a year would cross the shallow and stormy waters of Hecate Sound, duck behind Banks Island, follow the narrow Principe Channel for 120 km, turn east through Otter Channel, cross the track of many Alaska cruise ships at the south end of Granville Channel, and ascend Douglas Channel, another narrow fiord, a further 100 km to Kitimat. Altogether, this is about 300 km of tricky navigation in waters distinguished by fog, storms, and quite amazing tidal currents. Whole volumes have been written about shipwrecks on the B.C. coast, end even with today’s modern navigation systems, ships run aground and sink."  Photo below - "A view of Douglas Channel near Kitimat, B.C. About 200 tankers a year would sail up the sound to access oil from the Northern Gateway pipeline."" Source

JOHN LEHMANN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL  Source

We can expect the Vancouver Sun to start spewing propaganda on behalf of corporate interests any day now. Today: "As Ian Reid succinctly observes, the Vancouver Sun "has apparently merged with Encana’s communications department and is now almost desperately spinning the Northern Pipeline on their behalf.""Source 

China Owns the Alberta Tarsands Source

The billions of "possible" income is a mute point, as it could destroy existing industries of equal or greater value in a heartbeat. Whale watching and the wild salmon industry alone are each billion dollar industries. It's not "if" there is spill but "when".
"Using data from Enbridge's own reports, the Polaris Institute calculated that 804 spills occurred on Enbridge pipelines."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enbridge
Another oil spill last week can be added to this list. 
Photo Tar Sands in Alberta How BP and other oil companies get away with murder
The Keystone XL full time job numbers went from tens of thousands to 50 once the bias industry owned statements didn't pass the sniff test and are now under review. The Northern Gateway has all the same players. They propose Northern Gateway jobs. Perhaps 100 permanent jobs. That's it.
Source

Elizabeth May has an informed and articulate response to the ridiculous rantings of Joe Oliver as he calls the opposition to the Northern Gateway project radical foreign environmentalist. Source 

Funny, if you take out the word "environmentalist" , change the word "stop" to "force", he would be telling the whole truth to what our government is doing to Canadians. Maybe that's why the spin works. Harper says environmentalists "backed by foreign money" Link
Apon futher investigation, we find of the 4000+ speakers scheduled for the Northern Gateway Hearings, 12 are "forgeign funded radicals". All 12 are big oil backers.

As Kitimat's shores finally begin to claws back from the damage done by the last industry to come and go. First Nations have expressed the 50 jobs are not worth the risk. All but a few of the 100 Nations impacted say they will not be bribed.

Are we at the precipice of change perhaps the end of this dinosaur economy? Other countries have proven clean energy, clean food and peace are good for economies. Innovation, equality, real food and sustainable energy can provide for the world today. The www has educated everyone to what a few special interests do to our planet and all it's inhabitants. From energy monopolies and media control, to silencing natural cures and sustainable practices for profit, even with our RCMP and MPs now gagged by our gov. Source, still we educate and empower ourselves with compassion for each other. Because we care for each other and our futures, this will be a peaceful revolution (evolution). This will end tyranny everywhere. In Canada, over $100 billion has been allotted for military and billions for privately run jails. The behavior of our public servants is a reflection of barbaric values of a ruling class that we can no longer with clean conscience perpetuate. We can do better. We are doing better. ♥
http://environmentaldefence.ca/blog/northern-gateway-and-tanker-risks

This smear campaign comes from the top down, and is a tactic to move the focus to industry propaganda rather than the real issues. How much is this costing us?  The article on CBC's website netted 1000 responses within the first hour of posting the Joe Oliver article, almost 4000 in the first day, mostly by Canadians opposed to this atrocity.

Triumphant Victoria Finale for Salmon Migration

"The First Nations of Northern BC including the Haisla have been fighting to protect this coast for decades. This proposed project is just one of many we will have ended up stopping. The insinuation that northern communities, and especially First Nations, can be bought by U.S. interests is paternalistic and insulting; if not some new iteration of hypocrisy that can only be characterized as soft core racism." Source
George Hoberg says: "There is a way to legally get the pipeline approved (despite fierce First Nations opposition) and that's the process we are moving into right now." They have been unsuccessful in bribing First Nations.
Source
Now the Prime-minister of Canada calls anyone opposed to his dirty dream an "Enemy of Canada"? Now Harper is trying to meddle in the finances of independent environmental groups that oppose the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline by attempting to cut their funding. Source

Massive smear campaigns are now underway by "Ethical Oil". The same industry funded group that cooked the books and sold the US a State report full of unsubstantiated job numbers, bias environmental reports and created massive conflict of interest issues regarding State owned shares in the oily business of the tarsands in the Keystone XL proposal. Canada is currently throwing unprecedented efforts to thwart US initiatives and opposition to these pipelines.

"The oil industry’s own polling shows that there are millions of Canadians opposed to this new tarsands pipeline." Now they have their Big Oil buddies throwing money at the campaign to bully and bribe their agenda to unsuspecting Canadians. Source
Witnessing the all but unanimous apposition by Canadians to the pipe-dream of a few "foreign radicals" Our PMs former advisor suggests disregarding the values of Canadians, and force this "deal" though. Source

Both CBC and CTV "Should this pipeline be built?" Polls show 78% opposed. see links to polls below.
Bitumen is much more toxic and corrosive than gas or oil.

Map David Leversee - Source

Haida Gwaii, is the most torrent unpredictable waters on the West Coast, 1.5 billion dollar wild salmon industry, 2.1 billion in whale tours are at risk not to mention the entire ecosystem. The pipeline would cross over 1000 streams and rivers traverse in the most inaccessible treacherous mountainous temperate rain forests in the world. The Great Bear Rainforest would be at risk. 

Sounds good on paper BUT: Thinking about a job in Canada's oil industry, heard you can make lots of money?  "If you make $70 000 a year in the Tarsands, you need assistance with housing" The average 1 bedroom apartment is $1600 month, average mobile trailer is $300 000 in Fort Mcmurry. 6 doctors for population of approx 100,000. "Syncrude snow" in winter. Contaminated Athabaska river. Arsenic in the wildlife. 5 First Nations communities lands are being eaten up. 4000 chemicals dumped into the Athabaska everyday, as rare cancers rates skyrocketing. The air isn't monitored. 3 barrels of water turned to toxic waste for 1 barrel of bitumen. 2-4000 lbs of forest floor is moved for 1 barrel of oil.

Great Documentary about Alberta Jobs:

 Our "leader" in Canada says he will support Israel completely if they choose to invade Iran?? Source Most oil is used for US military at 360 000 barrels a day. 

"The U.S. Department of Defense consumes 360,000 barrels of oil each day for WAR alone. Yet corporate Amerika wants you to conserve, no doubt to save the last drops for the military (to be used to secure more oil). " Source The Harper agenda is that of a one track (son of an oil baron) mind is costing jobs hand over fist. Source

In Ontario and Montreal, 627,000 or 42% job loss. 50% pay cuts for those who remain while CEO are subsidized millions?  No wonder union workers take to the streets when 500 at a time are laid off. Source 1  --  Source 2  

At this rate there will be plenty of  McJob opportunities available in Canada. And when 8$ an hour is not longer the "global industry standard" our jobs will be quickly outsourced as we are currently seeing in the US.

The same company that manufactures the tarsands equipment and gets millions in subsidies is destroying the working class. "January 21 2012, thousands of union members and their community allies will converge on London, Ontario, Canada, in solidarity with hundreds of workers who have been illegally locked out by their employer, Electro-Motive Diesel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caterpillar, Inc. The company is trying to impose a reduction in hourly wages of over 50%, the elimination of retiree benefits, and an end to the workers’ defined benefit pension plan, among other attacks. In the third quarter of 2011, Caterpillar posted profits of close to $15,000,000 per day, a 44% increase over the previous year." Source - Occupy Ottawa

Enbridge Polls say Canadians support the pipeline. HA! More big oil backed "Ethical Oil" versions of the truth I'm sure.

Northern Gateway Pipeline Public Poll: Should these pipelines be built? 78% say NO. What do you think? Link to Public Poll 
Public Poll: Are you for or against the Enbridge pipeline being built across north-central B.C. to Kitimat on the Pacific coast? Link to Public Poll 78% against 

Enbridge Poll Do you support Enbridge's proposal to build the Northern Gateway oil pipeline? 85% oppose Online Poll

Enbridge Poll by the Globe and Mail shows 70% oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline Online Poll

Enbridge, Ipsos-Reid poll, and disinformation tactics:
Online Poll

Documentary on the Great Bear Rainforests under threat by DIRTY TARSANDS / OILSANDS

76% polled think that oil tankers should be banned outright from out West Coast. Online Poll
Clean energy jobs have surpassed all fossil fuel jobs combined in the US Investments in clean energy trumped fossil fuel in the US last year. Countries are flourishing on clean energy. Our son of an oil baron Harper gov. has admitted to suppressing cancer cures and technology on behalf of corporate profits. With scientist, media, and now our MPs gagged by the Harper Government, we must retake the reigns of our country, as they can no longer be trusted to the dictator who stole our democracy. (see links in earlier posts). There are alternatives. Source

"...the Stone Age ended, not because we ran out of stones." Richard Sears 
If there is a scrap of democracy let in Canada, this private interest / public liability will never be more than talk. May it be an example of how Canadians, and citizens worldwide took note, stood up and helped make the world a better place. Sorry to go on.