The following letter is being sent in response to Sundre Round Up editor Simon Ducatel's "Taking a stand for energy" commentary that ran in the April 19 edition of the Innisfail Province and Sundre Round Up.
Mr. Ducatel states, "However no government, left or right, has in recent memory overseen the development of any significant pipeline project in the province or the rest of the country. What a dose of irony it would be, at least for all the naysayers, if the Alberta NDP were to end up being the ones to lead the way on such an undertaking."
His claim that no significant pipelines have been recently completed is a vain attempt to paint this current socialist government as a credible saviour of our beleaguered energy sector. His assertions fall flat in the face of historical facts.
The following are the major oil pipelines built under Prime Minister Stephen Harper from 2006 through to 2015: 1) Keystone Phase pipeline (Phase1): A project from June 2010 that is delivering oil from Hardisty, Alta., more than 3,456 kilometres to the junction at Steele City, Neb., and on to Wood River Refinery in Roxana, Ill., and Patoka Oil Terminal Hub (tank farm) north of Patoka, Ill. It was completed in June 2010. 2) Alberta Clipper (also known as Enbridge's Line 67) is an oil pipeline in North America. It is owned and operated by Enbridge and is part of the extensive Enbridge Pipeline system. The pipeline runs from Hardisty to Superior, Wis., integrating the company's Canadian oilsands pipeline system with the Lakehead system in the United States. Construction on the pipeline began in summer 2008 and it was placed into service on April 1, 2010. The first shipment was moved in October 2010. It has pump stations at Hardisty; Kerrobert, Sask.; Milden, Sask.; Cromer, Man.; Glenboro, Man.; Gretna, Man.; Viking, Minn.; Clearbrook, Minn.; and Deer River, Minn. The diameter of the pipe is 910 millimetres. As well there has been major pipeline expansion: 3) Kinder Morgan's Anchor Loop, which expanded an already existing TransMountain pipeline, was completed in 2008. The TMX (Trans Mountain Expansion), specifically the Anchor Loop Project which involved looping ñ installing a second pipeline adjacent to the existing pipeline ñ a section of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline system between Hinton and a location near Rearguard, B.C., as well as the installation of two new pump stations, one near Niton Junction in Alberta and the other near Pyramid, B.C. 4) Enbridge's Line 9 reversal, which includes reversal of the line that was completed in November 2012, and includes Line 9 ó Montreal to Sarnia, Ont.
I am quite certain that Albertans are not so gullible to believe that the same anti-oil activists that now sit as our government are genuinely interested in promoting the very resource industry they have spent so many years vilifying.
Don MacIntyre, MLA
Innisfail-Sylvan Lake
Shadow minister of electricity and renewables
