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NEWS: Harper government says ‘Line 9 would show eastern Canadians the benefits of Alberta oilsands development’

The reversal of Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline in Ontario will demonstrate the benefits of the tar sands in Alberta, according to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver. Enbridge has said it plans to ship light crude oil to the Suncor refinery in Montreal. But CBC reports, “In its latest document filed with the NEB, the pipeline company says they would like to ship heavier crudes — like oilsands bitumen — at a later date.”

And while the company and the Harper government have claimed that this oil will service Atlantic Canada (and offset the oil they import in tankers on the Atlantic Ocean), others are saying this is really about reviving the Trailbreaker pipeline proposal to ship Alberta oil to Portland, Maine – and then from there to the US market and other destinations, including China, India and Europe.

Steven Guilbeault, head of Equiterre, an environmental group based in Montreal, believes the Line 9 project is not about energy security for Canada.

And CBC reports, “A group of concerned citizens in Quebec’s Eastern Townships is working to make sure the Montreal-to-Portland pipeline is never reversed. …Jean Binette, president of the Committee for the Environment of Dunham, Que., worries that will be too much of a stress on the 60-year-old piece of infrastructure that has carried nothing but light sweet crude its entire life. He worries a bitumen spill would poison local wells and other water sources used by a region of 12,000 people. Binette looks at Enbridge’s Kalamazoo River accident in Michigan. That 3.3-million litre leak happened two years ago and is still being cleaned up.”

CBC notes, “Line 9 passes through 99 towns and cities and 14 aboriginal communities in Ontario and Quebec.”

Last May, the Hamilton Spectator reported, “Protesters have halted a (National Energy Board) hearing into a proposal to ship tarsands oil through Flamborough (near Hamilton). …’This project cannot go forward without the free, prior and informed consent of the Haudenosaunee who would be directly impacted by a pipeline rupture,’ said Metis activist Sakihitowin Awasis…”

In late-October, the Toronto Star reported, “A study conducted by conservation areas in the Greater Toronto Area warns that a pipeline break could have a ’significant’ effect on drinking water. …The study modeled the effect of breaks where pipelines cross streams and rivers that flow into Lake Ontario near drinking water intakes. The spills in the model would mean that contaminants would exceed drinking water standards at the water plant intakes, the study says.”

On Saturday November 17, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow will speak at a day-long conference at the University of Toronto titled, ‘The Tar Sands Comes to Ontario: Stop Line 9’. Other speakers include Art Sterritt, (Executive Director, B.C. Coastal First Nations), Wes Elliott (Haudenosaunee land defender), and Vanessa Gray (Aamjiwnaang First Nation). More on that conference at http://rabble.ca/news/2012/11/toronto-conference-takes-aim-local-tar-sands-pipeline.

Today’s CBC report is at http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/11/08/pol-enbridge-line-9-reversal.html.

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