When Canadians went to the polls last November many voters hoped a new government would usher in an era of greater transparency and public engagement, particularly when it came to important infrastructure projects, like pipelines.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like much has changed.
Last week, a federally appointed panel tip-toed into Jasper hoping they could get in and out of town without anyone noticing–or at least that’s how it seems.
Without any public advertising, besides a press release published on a government website on June 30 and a lonesome tweet on July 7 by the department of Natural Resources, nobody in town seemed to know about the meeting, except for four locals who also seemed just as perplexed about the low turn out.
The problem is that the panel was in Jasper to specifically engage local and Indigenous communities about Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline project, which was conditionally approved by the National Energy Board in May.
If approved, the twined pipeline would allow 890,000 barrels of oil to pass through Jasper National Park a day raising the stakes for an environmental disaster if the pipeline were to ever rupture.
In response to the NEB’s conditional approval–which is subject to 157 conditions, including 49 environmental requirements–National Resources Minister Jim Carr, appointed a panel to travel across Alberta and British Columbia to specifically “listen” to local communities, stakeholders, and Indigenous groups before the government makes a final decision on the project, which must be made on or before Dec. 19, 2016.
If the government is truly committed to “listening” to the public’s concerns about the project the first step should be letting the public know about the meetings by contacting local NGO’s, private organizations, local municipal governments and dare we say it–through advertising.
But then again, perhaps the government isn’t really interested in actively engaging the public because then they might actually have to do something.
When the Fitzhugh asked the panel why the meeting wasn’t publically advertised the panel admitted the meetings were announced last minute, but said they extended invitations to locals, businesses and NGOs.
Apparently those invitations never made it to their intended recipients because after following up with the Jasper Environmental Association, representatives from the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Jasper staff and Mayor Richard Ireland, not a single organization was aware of the meeting.
Adding insult to injury, the panel quickly deflected responsibility for the poor turnout claiming they don’t work for the federal government so it’s not their responsibility to let people know about the meetings.
The panel and the federal government should both be embarrassed with how they’ve gone about “listening” to Canadians about this controversial project, but then again Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau already said he’s in favour of the project before he was elected, so perhaps this panel is more about paying lip service then actually listening to the public?
It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had a federal government fail to listen to Canadians and we saw how that turned out.
