The Week to End Enbridge

mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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Jun 28, 2010
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The Week to End Enbridge
Prince George Citizen

One year after the federal government formally approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway tankers and pipelines project, with 209 conditions, opposition to the project has not wavered. From June 13-21, during the "Week to End Enbridge," people from all walks of life will again join together across BC to say "No" to this dangerous mega-project.

The Yinka Dene Alliance has always said that we will use all lawful means to defend our lands and waters from this risky project. Two of our member nations, Nak'azdli and Nadleh Whut'en, will be in court this fall alongside six other First Nations, four non-profits and Canada's largest private sector union, Unifor, seeking to overturn Northern Gateway's approval.

The Week to End Enbridge features dozens of events in every corner of our province supporting the Pull Together campaign, which is aimed at raising funds for First Nations' legal defence to stop the Northern Gateway project for good. We have already seen small businesses and farmers playing a big role, generously chipping in their narrow profit margins to this BC-wide effort to block Northern Gateway.

Here in Prince George, the Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance is hosting a concert and dance to raise money for Pull Together, featuring music by Black Spruce Bog. The Prince George fundraising concert for Pull Together takes place Friday, June 26, at the Moose Hall on Douglas Street, Prince George. Doors open at 7:30pm. More info: Prince George: DANCE! with Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance - Pull Together.

Many of the events during this Week to End Enbridge will be fun and family-oriented -- everything from paddling on the water, to author readings, to salmon BBQs. You can have a good time doing good while stopping a pipeline.

Even in the face of the continued threat of tar sands pipelines and tankers, looking back at the past year since Ottawa approved the Northern Gateway project, there is a lot to celebrate. Through our shared purpose in protecting our communities from this reckless mega-project, First Nations and our northern communities have been brought closer together. And continued uncertainty and legal risk associated with the project have continued to discourage investors from giving Enbridge the commercial support it needs to proceed with the pipeline.

Over the past year, British Columbians have raised over $400,000 to support First Nations legal challenges against Northern Gateway. And last month, new Alberta Premier Rachel Notley indicated that her province's government would no longer actively push for the pipeline.

All in all, it's been a tough year for Enbridge.

Back in 2010, the member nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance took decisive action, based in our own Indigenous laws, and banned Northern Gateway from our territories and watersheds. Tens of thousands of British Columbians have pledged to stand with us to uphold our decision. Northern Gateway does not have -- and will not gain -- social licence from the people of British Columbia.

The court battle is on this fall to overturn the conditional federal approval of the Enbridge project. The planned Week to End Enbridge events will go a long way toward ensuring that First Nations have the funds needed to do so.

This week we're sending a message so loud they're going to hear it in the corporate boardrooms and in the halls of power in Ottawa.

No means no. Northern Gateway will never be built.

Geraldine Thomas Flurer is with the Yinka Dene Alliance and John Orlowsky is with the Sea to Sands Conservation Alliance.


© Copyright 2015 Prince George Citizen

'Please support the Prince George Citizen and online news like this by purchasing a digital subscription.'

The Week to End Enbridge
 
Locutus

Locutus

Adorable Deplorable
Jun 18, 2007
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Lol @ your e-notifications these dayz.

get a hobby, a life or a woman dude. too much time on your paws. your salty angst be showin'.
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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CDNBear said:
Says the guy offended by free speech, lol.
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mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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Enbridge downgrade has investors asking who’s next | Calgary Herald
calgaryherald.com

The riskiest and fastest growing part of Canada’s investment-grade bond market is about to get a lot bigger.

Standard & Poor’s became the second of three major credit rating firms to downgrade Enbridge Inc. into the BBB range from the single-A group last week, adding $16 billion in bonds to the group.

The BBB range, which includes corporate bonds rated BBB+, BBB and BBB-, has more than doubled since the credit crisis as near record low borrowing costs lure firms to add more debt, leading to more credit downgrades. That reduces the options for investors looking for safer bets in the highest rated investment-grade bonds.

“It’s a problem in that the corporate universe is drifting to greater risk,” Altaf Nanji, who helps oversee $17 billion for Manulife Asset Management, said by phone from Toronto. “There will be some forced sellers.”

Bonds in the BBB group now represent about 34 percent of the investment grade corporate bond market at $132 billion in debt, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data. In 2007 they represented 15 percent of the market with C$37 billion outstanding, before the credit crisis and ensuing recession prompted the Bank of Canada to cut its benchmark interest rate to near zero.

In that time, single-A rated debt has increased its share of the market by only about four percentage points, to 39 percent, while AA and top rated AAA debt have both seen their share of the market shrink.

While the shift forces investors to take on more risk, it’s also boosted returns. The 1.9 percent gain for corporate bonds in Canada rated BBB this year tops the 1.6 percent return for single-A rated issuers, according to Bloomberg bond index data.

The BBB category may grow further with investors starting to price in a chance Alberta utilities AltaLink LP and CU Inc. could be downgraded too, according to a report last week from Royal Bank of Canada.

Together, Alberta’s utilities represent more than C$10 billion dollars of bonds, according to Bloomberg data.

In Enbridge’s case, S&P said the company’s financial position is weakening due to a large and expanding spending program. The downgrade to BBB+, the highest level in the BBB range, came the same day Enbridge announced it would transfer its Canadian liquids pipeline business and certain renewable energy assets into a subsidiary. S&P said the asset drop down didn’t worsen the Calgary-based firm’s credit rating.

Enbridge’s relative borrowing costs increased about eight basis points after the company’s downgrade Friday, sending the value of its bonds down, “on the growing realization that being BBB in the index will bring forced selling due to some buyers’ blanket ceilings on aggregate BBB exposure,” Stephen Dafoe, a corporate bond analyst at Bank of Nova Scotia, wrote in a client note.

Telus Inc., a Vancouver-based telecommunications company, said this year it would allow its debt levels to rise to fund capital spending. The company said those debt levels, consistent with a rating in the BBB category, were a “sweet spot” for getting the most capital at the best price. That prompted rating firm DBRS Ltd. to drop its rating from A- to BBB+.

“The company’s strategy is to maintain investment-grade credit ratings in the range of BBB+ or the equivalent,” John Gossling, Telus’s chief financial officer, said in a May 7 conference call.

In Alberta, a decision by regulators that could increase the risk of losses for the province’s regulated utilities has led investors to start pricing in a 50 percent chance of a downgrade for AltaLink, CU and FortisAlberta Inc. to BBB from A- , according to a June 16 note from RBC analysts led by Andrew Calder.

Since the March 25 decision, bonds from the three Alberta utilities have been among the worst performers of Canada’s largest corporate issuers, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.

The odds of FortisAlberta and CU defaulting on their debt are now about the same as a firm with a BBB rating, according to Bloomberg default risk calculations.

AltaLink’s $350 million notes due September 2043 trade at a spread to government debt of 150 basis points, compared with 132 basis points at the start of the second quarter, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg.

“For us, it means we have to be more prepared to hold companies that have higher leverage and aren’t as strongly rated as they were in the past,” John Braive, who oversees C$60 billion in fixed income as vice chairman at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s CIBC Asset Management. “By definition it’s going to be a little riskier than it was previously.”

Enbridge downgrade has investors asking who’s next | Calgary Herald
 
CDNBear

CDNBear

Custom Troll
Sep 24, 2006
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Why does it seem that you're gleeful or take some form of pleasure from this?

Just out of curiosity.
 
captain morgan

captain morgan

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A Mouse Once Bit My Sister
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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You are taking about me instead of the topic again.

I'm willing to bet you are incapable of discussing a topic without bringing me into it.
 
CDNBear

CDNBear

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Sep 24, 2006
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mentalfloss said:
You are taking about me instead of the topic again.
Click to expand...
You keep personalizing them. What exactly do you think that's going to accomplish?

I'm willing to bet you are incapable of discussing a topic without bringing me into it.
Click to expand...
I bet you're incapable of discussing a topic without personalizing it.

If you don't like what it garners, don't do it.
 
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