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Protect the coastline of B.C.

I beg you.
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To the Editor;

Office of the Prime Minister

Ottawa, Canada

Hon. Justin Trudeau,

Today I write to you to beg you to protect the coastline of B.C.

Every day we see more and more water, land and air damaged, often irreversibly, by large corporations seeking profit at the expense of our children’s right to enjoy what you and I have enjoyed. It is time to find leaders who will make this stop.

The Kinder Morgan pipeline for transport of bitumen to offshore markets is such a project. I grew up for much of my life in Vancouver and I taught in the Burnaby public school system. I took small children to help populate the Stoney Creek waterway system with salmonid fry and by doing so, teach them to respect and monitor but not negatively impact, our environment. This creek and the area around it, was part of a referendum-supported conservation area that is now slated to have a bitumen-laden pipeline carved right through it.

The National Energy Board, which has green-lighted this bad decision was a public organization that you campaigned to change because you saw it was corrupt and in need of better decision making. You pledged more transparency and vigilance to Canadians who agreed with you. Yet, with the KM pipeline, the EPA is making decisions that have not adequately honoured local concerns.

With your support of this project, you are fostering oppositional politics between Alberta and B.C. You are failing in your leadership into the non-fossil fuel, renewable energy strategies that Canadians voted for when they elected you. With this project, you are risking large spills to destroy a coastline and its waters, wildlife and surrounding land for the pleasure of huge profit-seeking industries whose track record does not deserve such alliance.

With this project, you are betting on an unproven market. China is not in the oil refinement business, THEY are moving toward renewables. THEY are already importing their REFINED oil from Saudi Arabia. With this project, you are supporting the oil industry which Canadians have been subsidizing for years with billions and failing to inject impetus into renewable energy sources. We need no more dams, no more tar sands, no more LNG and certainly, no more pipelines!

With this project, you are putting at risk thousands of jobs in tourism, fishing and other related fields. Imagine the international outcry when the first spill happens, when the devastation is shared around the world in countries that ARE seeking better ways to protect their resources while producing energy. The Trudeau Travesty will be known worldwide and generations will acknowledge that it was your government that made it happen. Exxon Valdeez will have to step back into second place as a disaster of monumental proportions.

Why not refine the oil right here in Canada for our own markets? Why not pipe it down to Texas where Mr. Trump can refine it and save him from building some of those offshore drill rigs that he is planning? Why not use it as a NAFTA negotiation tactic? Why not be a leader who leads us into a shift of change that is so much needed on this planet? We will support you. You are not in this alone. You have a big job to do and I know you can do it. For your children. For mine. For the future.

Let the oil go the way of the dinosaurs who created it.

It is time.

Sincerely,

Pat Martin, Creston