Editor :
(re: Enbridge Gateway proposal).
There are hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines all around the world transporting crude and refined oil and gas.
On the seas at any given time there are hundreds of tankers doing the same.
There are leaks and spills happening all the time, adding to the natural seepage that has always put oil slicks and goo balls into the environment.
All pipelines and all tankers cross land and seaways that are virtually important to everyone.
We are not the only people who value their land and waters but you would think from all the objections to this pipeline that our region should be exempt from sharing some of the burden and some of the risk involved in building and maintaining the modern world.
We don’t deserve a free ride and we especially don’t deserve all the benefits of a wealthy economy if we plant our feet and say ‘No’.
Yes, construction jobs are short-lived and long-term jobs may be few but the effect on Canada’s economy will be huge and everything from trade advantages to our stature in the world will be effected.
We can understand why professional protesters such as Suzuki and the NDP would shriek gloom and doom about this development but why are the Indigenous people opposing it?
When are they going to come around to the realization that all of their funding and all of their job prospects come ultimately from resources and spinoffs such as pipelines?
There will come a day when petroleum is no longer the major source of energy and we may then find that our area is an even worse developmental backwater, dependent on handouts from more productive parts of Canada.
New ways are changing our lives almost daily and we must have the courage and good sense to welcome the future, both for our sake and the sake of our children and grandchildren.
Alice Doll
Smithers