We’re in a climate emergency. From floods and forest fires to struggling salmon runs, B.C. communities are already experiencing devastating impacts to our homes, local economies and ways of life.
The coal, oil and gas companies fueling this crisis know their days are numbered. But in the meantime, their rich executives are determined to squeeze out as much profit as they can, even while the planet burns.
That’s what led Enbridge and Kinder Morgan to dream up massive pipeline and tanker projects to ship toxic, sinking crude off the B.C. coast – with inevitable spills along the way. Meanwhile, U.S. coal barons eyed the Fraser River as a back door to export more of their dirty product to Asia. They would’ve gotten away with it too, if everyday people hadn’t stood together to stop Fraser Surrey Docks’ coal trains in their tracks.
Sadly, Canadian politicians are all too willing to jump on the oil industry’s bandwagon, ignoring scientific and economic evidence, and violating Indigenous rights. Justin Trudeau didn’t just approve the Trans Mountain expansion using a flawed and unlawful process. When Houston oil investors saw the writing on the wall and decided to pull out, Trudeau stepped forward with $4.5 billion taxpayer dollars to bail them out.
Now, the federal government is planning to waste $10 billion more on this dead-end tanker project – on top of the billions of public dollars Canadian politicians already give every year in handouts and tax breaks to oil and fracking companies. Our government is propping up a dying industry with corporate welfare and paying them to make the climate crisis worse.
It’s time to stop shoveling public money over to Big Oil, and invest it instead in good jobs, renewable energy and a safe future for our kids.