Posted on September 10, 2012 by Mihaela Mardare — 1 Comment ↓

“Northern Gateway Hearings. The Alberta Federation of Labour says the Enbridge pipeline project will actually eliminate Canadian jobs”

http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/episode/2012/09/04/the-tuesday-edition-45/.html

Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour was one of the guests of the September 4th “As it Happens” show at CBC Radio. The Federation is opposing the construction of the Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat BC because exporting the crude oil to Asian markets will lead in the long run to loss of jobs and raise of oil price for Canadians.

In Asia, especially in China, the price for oil is a little higher than in North America. If the cruel oil from Alberta will be exported in Asia, the price of oil will rise on Canadian market too. The Canadian consumers, businesses and refineries will be paying more for the oil they need. The higher costs of production for refineries will lead to loss of jobs.

Another reason of price rising for Canadian refineries is the high cost of transporting on rail as Texas-based energy consultant Muse Stancil said: “Northern Gateway allows the Canadian crude producers to both stop selling to their least attractive refiner clients (from a pricing prospective) and reduces their need to ship heavy crude via comparatively expensive rail transport.” http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/story/2012/09/06/pol-cp-gateway-hearings-dutch-disease.html

The president of the Alberta Federation of Labour suggested as the best alternative for Gateway pipeline the export of gas: “we should give the world gas in their tanks and keep the jobs in upgrading and refining for ourselves”. This will prevent of sending the high valuable jobs out of the country and raising the price of crude oil as a result of higher costs of production for Canadian refineries.

September 10 2012

Michaela Mardare, U of BC Blog