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Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton & Kent County chapters oppose TransCanada greenwash donation to literacy program

The Council of Canadians Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton and Kent County chapters have taken to Twitter to oppose TransCanada from greenwashing the 1.1 million barrel per day Energy East pipeline by making a donation to a literacy program in New Brunswick.


If the Energy East pipeline were operational (by late 2019 as planned) it would generate an additional 30 to 32 million tonnes of upstream carbon emissions each year – the equivalent of adding more than seven million cars to our roads, represent about a one-third increase in the capacity of the pipeline network carrying crude out of western Canada, spur 650,000 to 750,000 barrels per day of additional production from the tar sands, cross 2,900 waterways, put at risk the drinking water of 5 million people, increase the amount of volatile organic compounds (such as cancer-causing benzene and toluene) released into the air near the refinery in Saint John, and mean the addition of almost 300 export supertankers a year in the Bay of Fundy.


The Calgary-based transnational corporation says, “TransCanada supports local initiatives that help build strong and vibrant communities across North America, and we believe education is the foundation of a community. This is why we support non-profit organizations such as Elementary Literacy Inc. that aims to increase literacy levels among children in elementary schools across New Brunswick to give them a head start in life. TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Project recently donated $25,500 to the Elementary Literacy Friends/Communauté Litteratie Enfants Francophones (Elf/Clef) programs that provide school-based support, in English and French, to elementary-aged New Brunswick students who are struggling with learning to read.”


Fredericton chapter activist Joan Green tells us, “We went on some of the school websites plus the website for this New Brunswick Literacy program to state our reasons for the schools not to be taking money from TransCanada and to give the money back! We then found out that they had taken these websites down. On to Twitter!”


Tweets by chapter activists now include:


  • @elemliteracynb Taking money fr Oil & Gas #NotAcceptable 4 our children’s lives , Give $ back #nbpoli

  • @elemliteracynb Grt prog, 2 BAD , funded by Oil & Gas, will destroy our children’s future thr #ClimateChange #nbpoli

  • @elemliteracynb way to sell out the children of #NB to the oil and gas industry. Expect resistance #SHAME #nbpoli

  • #EE pipeline will threaten H20 of 130,679 #NB ers & over 5 M. Canadians along route #nbpoli

  • How about stop giving tax $ to oil and gas corporations and starting funding education @briangallantNB

  • It’s totally inappropriate @BrianGallantNB Have you no shame? Sadly, the cons are just as low and probably think this is great! #nbpoli

  • Stop using children to promote your oil and gas companies @BrianGallantNB ! Disgusting how much lower can we go?

  • See it even in New Brunswick where fossil fuel companies use children for propaganda.

  • Hey @JustinTrudeau #NoSocialLicense for pipelines and keep obnoxious oil and gas away from our education systems!

To retweet these messages and draw more public attention to this issue, please go to @plrsTweet, @MckinleyLynaya and @JoanGreen11


In this July 2014 campaign blog, we noted:  Bloomberg reports, “TransCanada Corp. (TRP) provided an Ontario town along the proposed Energy East pipeline route with cash to buy a rescue truck on conditions that include the municipality not comment on the company’s operations. TransCanada gave Mattawa C$30,000 ($28,200) under its community engagement program, according to an agreement appended to the agenda of the town council’s June 23 meeting. The city agreed to ‘not publicly comment on TransCanada’s operations or business projects’ for five years as part of the agreement, the document showed.”


For more on our campaign to stop the Energy East pipeline, please click here.