New Tanker Liability set for $400 million, $1.6 billion for clean up

[YaK]

I tend to be a tanker apologist (given my career in the shipping industry) while being somewhat anti-Enbridge (and no, that is not a contradiction). That being said I have no idea how limited liability benefits any of the citizens of BC. It isn't like we need to be pandering to oil companies to do business here - they seem intent on shipping our resources overseas come hell or high water.
My biggest issue on the risk/reward side is that regardless of money thrown at any potential problem the existing resources for oil cleanup on this coast are woeful. If something did occur then costs would be further amplified by the lack of preparation.
I have high confidence that a major spill will never take place but prudent risk management demands that you are ready for any eventuality. We are not.

[Buddhas Hand]

I am only conservative in relative to CDC. I am more a classical liberal.

Our leaders are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. If Canada does not make a windfall from the tarsands, then our economy will be in shambles. Remember, right now, Candadians per capita are at record debt levels. Our housing market is at record highs. Our demographics are getting quite skewed towards having an older, lower tax payer, higher service using population. In places like BC even before we undergo the full shift towards and inverted age pyramid we are already devoting more than half our provincial budget to healthcare, while our school system takes a lot of money as well due to the fact that the school locations no longer match where the children are (and more importantly, increasingly aren't). As a result, even now, we have non stop complaints about the healthcare system and threats of strikes and stress from the workers. In education, we have protests to stop closing some schools that are half full, some still operating at high costs due to being half full due to lack of children and funding. While in other areas (the few pockets of cheap living in this province) you have most of the children being taught in ATCO trailers. All of this while your average Canadian is in debt to their eyeballs, just as every city is in financial trouble, just as every province is having trouble making ends meet (Ontario for example has something crazy like a 12 billion dollar deficit this year, more than the federal government!), and of course the federal government is trying desperately to get their budget balanced, but they are making a lot of cuts including some very unpopular ones to do so.

Into that environment, we have a choice. We can choose to generate more income via resource extraction and risk environmental damage, or we can choose to save the environment and endure a much worse standard of living, and the prospect of handing the next generation a crippling level of debt.

No surprise that the people that want to get elected are fixated on the easy source of money. Make no mistake, as much as CDC likes to blame Harper for this, Trudeau would be doing close to the same thing. He is on the record for not being against the pipelines.

The NDP might not allow the pipelines and nationalize the oil sands, but you might as well just tell Alberta to declare independence if you do. The "Let those eastern bastards freeze in the dark" bumper stickers are no figment of my imagination, they were quite popular during the national energy program that did nationalize the oil in the past, much to the economic ruin of Alberta. I assure you, they remember that period well.

Buy now - pay later , that's the story of the 21st century. Did i mention no interest or repayments till 2114.

Aussies lead the world in personal debt , the baby boomers are hitting pension age, china no longer wants as much of our Iron ore , many countries face the same/similiar problems as Canada , exploiting the enviroment for a short term gain will leave future generations with bigger problems than budget deficits.