A nation-building project for the new government

[B00Mer]

A nation-building project for the new government

A nation-building project, endorsed by the Assembly of First Nations, should be the top infrastructure, trade and First Nations priority for the new Trudeau government.

It is the proposal to build a railway from Alberta to Alaska, supported by native groups along way, that could carry 1.5 million barrels a day from the oil sands to the super tanker port in Valdez Alaska.

There are several main objectives, as enunciated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that this railway would meet:

• It is supported and will benefit First Nations who have already granted the social licence for the easement from Alberta through Yukon and to Alaska.
  
  
• The Prime Minister opposes Northern Gateway and this project will provide a lower cost and approved alternative to sell oil to Asia and not ship oil along the B.C. coast doing so.
  
  
• This project would be the most important trade bonanza in the nation’s history, especially given President Obama’s rejection on Friday of the Keystone XL pipeline.
• Trudeau supported the Keystone initiative and this would be a replacement. Alaska’s governor and legislature fully supports the oil-by-rail proposal. Oil volumes through Valdez have declined dramatically due to the decline in Alaska oil production.

Finally, this is not another hockey arena or road to nowhere or make-work project. This is wealth-creation infrastructure and is “shovel ready.”


Alberta commissioned a pre-feasibility report, but its results have been delayed due to the changes in government leadership. This year, Governor Bill Walker of Alaska invited newly minted Premier Jim Prentice to Juneau to demonstrate their state’s support for the project, but Prentice was defeated.

G7G Rail in Vancouver (Generating for Seven Generations) devised this 2,400-kilometre rail project. It will include First Nations groups in Alberta, B.C. and Yukon Territory, as well as Alaska Native corporations, as partners.

In an interview three years ago, G7G CEO Matt Vickers explained its origin: “We found these studies by Alaska and Yukon done in 2005 and 2007, we knew that Valdez faced declines from the North Slope oil fields and we knew that the B.C. pipelines, and the port in Kitimat, were opposed. This railway was an obvious solution.”

“To ensure this could be a real project, we began to knock on the doors of all the First Nations and tribes in Alaska along the route. We finished doing that in July [2012], getting letters of support from all. Plus, in July, I got support from the National Assembly of First Nations in the form of a resolution representing all 633 chiefs in the Assembly.”

Only one First Nation group has said no to the concept, but the railway can be re-routed around its territory.

In a February letter urging the project to Prentice, Chief Ronald Kreutzer, Fort McMurray #468 First Nation, wrote about delays: “The railway project aligns with everything that the First Nations have been asking for … We ask the Government of Alberta to further their pre-feasibility study investment and fund the comprehensive feasibility study so we can make this Nation Changing Project a reality for the benefit of all.”

Initial estimates are that a single-track line could be built for US$12 billion and double-track, US$16 billion. Alberta pre-feasibility study is still under wraps, but the next step would be to do a full-blown engineering and feasibility study.

Cost of transport per barrel at high volumes would be $8 a barrel, but the shipping distance from Valdez to Asia is three to four days shorter, compared to Vancouver or Kitimat, making overall costs in line with pipeline proposals to those cities.

A twin-tracked railway would also provide a needed alternative route for Canadian potash, grains, lumber, metals, minerals and other exports. The rail line could return from Valdez bringing equipment, supplies and water from the coast to the oil patch, at lower costs compared with current modes and distances. This makes the railway more valuable to the region.

This megaproject would meet a number of national objectives: liberate a stranded resource, bypass pipeline politics, help aboriginals and the country’s most dynamic, job creation region, and get up off the mat.

This requires the type of courage and vision that built the Canadian Pacific Railway more than one century ago.

G7G’s oil by rail project represents the single most important, and most pragmatic way, to underpin Canadian living standards. This is not about infrastructure. This is about nation-building.

source: A nation-building project for the new government | Financial Post

 

[petros]

Trudeau and Libs do not oppose the northern gateway. It was their f-cking idea in the first f-cking place.

Brief History of Canada's Pacific Gateway

The concept of Canada as a "gateway" between Asia and the rest of North America is not a recent phenomenon. Since the late 1800s, Vancouver has served as a transportation hub for the flow of goods and services across the Pacific. Historical milestones include the first overseas shipment of lumber from the Port of Vancouver in 1864, as well as the 1886 arrival of the first passenger train to the West Coast via the newly completed Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

Asian immigrants, especially Chinese, have played an important role in facilitating Canada's Pacific Gateway. Beyond the 15,000 or so labourers who came to help build the CPR, Chinese immigrants also contributed to the commercial foundations of the Gateway, by establishing import-export firms and related businesses. Yet the people-to-people contacts that the Gateway facilitated were not always readily embraced by the local population. Fears of the "Yellow Peril" led to the imposition of a punitive head tax to impede the inflow of Chinese, and ultimately to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923. Indian immigrants faced a similarly unwelcoming environment.

In the last 30 years or so, various "Pacific Gateway" strategies have been initiated at different levels of Canadian government. Starting with the "Third Option" in the Foreign Policy White Paper of 1970, the federal government began to see a need for the country to diversify its US-centred trade toward the Pacific Rim. This was followed by the 1984 creation of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, a national think-tank aimed at promoting Canada-Asia relations and greater awareness of Asia among Canadians. The $6 million joint federal-provincial Asia Pacific Initiative, from 1987 to 1990, led to some 60 different projects in sectors such as transportation, tourism, finance and education. Other federal initiatives included Canada's Year of the Asia Pacific in 1997 (which culminated in the APEC Summit in Vancouver of November that year), as well as SUCCESS and Western Economic Diversification's Gateway to Asia Project, which was inaugurated in 2001 and continues to link Canadian goods and services with Asian markets to this day.

In 2003, the BC government initiated a $1.1-billion transportation plan called "Opening Up BC" to expand local infrastructure over three years, so as to position the province as an economic gateway to global markets. Established in 1994, the Greater Vancouver Gateway Council has a similar mission to provide seamless logistical services, but solely within the local vicinity of Vancouver.

In 2005, the BC provincial government launched its Asia Pacific Gateway Initiative, which calls for $12.1 billion to be invested in new infrastructure over the next three years. BC's plan is notable in that beyond the Asia Pacific Trade Council and advisory committees it will create, the province has also set aside funds for cultural and educational initiatives, such as a possible Asia-Pacific Museum, as well as a proposed university devoted to Asia Pacific studies. Both federal and provincial initiatives received an extra boost from Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit in mid- September 2005, to both the East and West Coasts of Canada.

In October 21, 2005, the Martin government unveiled the Pacific Gateway Act (Bill C-68), committing the federal government to $590 million to be invested in transportation infrastructure, as well as the establishment of a Pacific Gateway Council to advise the government on the future allocation of funds. While the defeat of the Martin Government brought a temporary halt to this initiative, the Harper government announced one year later a modified version called the Asia Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, which commits $591 primarily to transportation infrastructure projects in British Columbia and Alberta. In early 2007, the federal government increased its investment in APGCI to $1B and committed $2.1B to a national fund for infrastructure for gateways and border crossings. The government also unveiled a National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Corridors to guide future investment and partnership activities. In September, the first container terminal at the Port of Prince Rupert officially opened with the first container ship from China expected in October.

In order for the Pacific Gateway to succeed, it must go beyond simply a Western Canadian strategy and truly become a national initiative. And while government policy may provide the general structure for such a Gateway, the public must be engaged to offer input and imagination so as to "bring the Gateway to life." Only then will the Gateway extend beyond just physical infrastructure, but also add value in terms of human resources, educational, environmental and cultural dimensions.