The Council of Canadians is calling for federal infrastructure funds to be spent on sustainable energy projects and water infrastructure, but a top banker says the money should be used to support the $15.7 billion Energy East pipeline.
The Canadian Press reports, “The CEO of one of Canada’s big banks is urging Ottawa to boost its spending on infrastructure projects and says the Energy East Pipeline should qualify for federal investment. Scotiabank CEO Brian Porter told the Canadian Club of Toronto on Friday that Energy East is a development that could help stimulate the country’s sluggish economy.”
Porter says, “Energy East would be a quick solution to get Canada’s energy to global markets and reduce that discount that Canadian producers face today. …The government should prioritize projects that will safely move people, ideas and our abundant natural resources – projects that are environmentally and socially responsible. One such project is the Energy East Pipeline.”
The banker also claims the pipeline would create tens of thousands of jobs. On that argument, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has commented, “The vast majority of jobs promised would be short-term, in construction and secondary industries. The Cornell Labour Institute found not only would TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. create fewer jobs than promised, but could actually kill more jobs than it creates. A spill from Energy East could also be a job killer. The pipeline crosses more than 900 waterways, used for drinking water, fishing, recreation, and sustaining farmland.”
Today’s news article continues, “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to spend an additional $60 billion on infrastructure projects over the coming decade, on top of what the previous Conservative government had planned to spend. That would bring total infrastructure spending to $125 billion by the end of the 10-year Liberal plan. More details are expected to be revealed in the federal budget late next month.”
News reports have noted that the federal budget is expected to be delivered on either March 21 or March 22.
In Dec. 2009, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Labour Congress jointly released a paper titled Green, Decent and Public. The paper argued that reducing emissions and addressing the climate crisis as an engine for green job creation. Authors Andrea Harden-Donahue and Andrea Peart stated, “As many as 18,000 jobs are created for every $1 billion of investment in energy conservation and renewable energy systems. The average renewable energy investment creates four times as many jobs as the same investment in the fossil fuel economy.”
Harden-Donahue and Peart proposed, “The federal government should provide an economic stimulus of at least $10 billion over each of the next two years. Such a program, mainly directed to energy efficiency and renewable energy projects including building retrofits and public transit, would create at least 200,000 jobs.”
And in the water chapter of the Alternative Federal Budget 2015: Delivering the Good, we called for an annual investment of $4.2 billion in water and wastewater infrastructure for municipalities and First Nations along with the implementation of a national water policy in order to combat the hundreds of drinking water advisories in effect. We also called for $613 million to be spent on the protection of the Great Lakes and freshwater supply, with $1.06 billion annually thereafter.
With a multi-billion dollar infrastructure budget now in place, this promise of climate jobs and clean drinking water for all could be made a reality.
The Council of Canadians calls on the Trudeau government to pursue a vision for a sustainable energy economy and the fulfillment of the human rights to water and sanitation, not the one advocated for by the Scotiabank CEO.
Further reading
Council of Canadians proposes alternatives for federal infrastructure spending (Feb. 6, 2016)
Council of Canadians calls on first ministers to “leap” at March 3 summit in Vancouver (Feb. 11, 2016)
Northumberland chapter engages in pre-federal budget consultation (Feb. 11, 2016)
