The Liberal government of Nova Scotia announced last week it will permanently ban hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as fracking. But they already banned fracking a couple of years ago.
So this is like hanging someone, burying them, and then digging them up and shooting them.
We get it: they don’t want fracking – or the jobs and tax revenues that come with it.
Because, who would want their economy to be like Alberta’s or B.C.’s or Saskatchewan’s, all of which are rich in part because of fracking.
Nova Scotia’s average household earns about 50% of the average household of Alberta.
Better keep that oil and gas industry out.
Fracking is a boring, technical process for increasing production of oil and gas. About 85% of all oil and gas wells in North America are fracked.
Fracking was invented in 1947. It’s been done more than a million times in the United States, and over 100,000 times in Alberta alone. It’s normal.
And safe.
In 67 years, there has never been a single, proven case of drinking water contamination from fracking. It’s certainly safer than Nova Scotia’s traditional source of energy – coal mining. According to the provincial government, 2,584 Nova Scotians have died in coal mining disasters in the province’s history. Which is 2,584 more than fracking has ever caused.
It would be absurd to ban coal mining because of occasional accidents – just as it would be absurd to ban cars because of car accidents.
Except that when it comes to fracking, the accidents just haven’t happened.
But, given Nova Scotia had already banned fracking, why did they re-ban it again now?
Well, Nova Scotia has a Liberal government. There is an election right now in neighbouring New Brunswick, and fracking is a key issue in the campaign there. And the Conservatives are running on a pro-fracking campaign.
So re-banning fracking was a campaign stunt – the Liberals in Nova Scotia trying to help the Liberals in New Brunswick.
It’s politics.
But it’s the worst kind of politics – the politics of defeat, the politics of “no,” the politics of a political and media class more comfortable with welfare than with work.
Atlantic Canada’s Liberals have a policy choice: fill government coffers through oil and gas jobs and the taxes that come from them, or live off the avails of other, richer province like Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. Who are rich in part because of fracking.
What Nova Scotia’s Liberals are really is saying is, they’ll take the profits from fracking.
They just won’t actually do the fracking. Let those western boys do the hard work. Nova Scotia will be content to live off the scraps from equalization transfers.
They might as well put up a big billboard on the highways leading into the province: Nova Scotia is closed for business.
In the past, Atlantic Canada could blame bad luck or global trends outside of its own control. Like when the fisheries declined, and thousands of Atlantic Canadians just couldn’t work – there just weren’t cod in the sea.
Or when the coal mines just weren’t economic anymore, or the Sydney steel mills.
But banning the oil and gas industry, and fracking – the largest source of job growth in North America, and the source of the highest-paying jobs – isn’t an accident, or just tough luck. It is a willful decision.
Of course, plenty of Nova Scotians work in fracking right now. They just have to leave their home and travel west to do it. Don’t ever say Atlantic Canadians lack initiative.
They have loads of it. Enough to leave their home province for work, a thousand miles away. Nova Scotia’s anti-jobs policies have purged so many young people, its average age is a full three years older than the national norm. It has the greatest proportion of senior citizens in the country. The young people have all gone west.
But hey, Yoko Ono and other celebrities approve, right Liberals?
Nova Scotia closed for business | Ezra Levant
Exactly.
Were there any justice in the world, there would be NO more equalization payments made to Nova Scotia. They have the riches buried in the ground, they just are not willing to extract it......but wish to be a parasite on the back of those that DO use their natural resources.
Same for New Brunswick, if we are damned fool enough to vote Liberal on Sept. 22, which looks likely.
BTW, the rumour mill has it that BOTH NS and NB have HUGE natural gas deposits.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill
So this is like hanging someone, burying them, and then digging them up and shooting them.
We get it: they don’t want fracking – or the jobs and tax revenues that come with it.
Because, who would want their economy to be like Alberta’s or B.C.’s or Saskatchewan’s, all of which are rich in part because of fracking.
Nova Scotia’s average household earns about 50% of the average household of Alberta.
Better keep that oil and gas industry out.
Fracking is a boring, technical process for increasing production of oil and gas. About 85% of all oil and gas wells in North America are fracked.
Fracking was invented in 1947. It’s been done more than a million times in the United States, and over 100,000 times in Alberta alone. It’s normal.
And safe.
In 67 years, there has never been a single, proven case of drinking water contamination from fracking. It’s certainly safer than Nova Scotia’s traditional source of energy – coal mining. According to the provincial government, 2,584 Nova Scotians have died in coal mining disasters in the province’s history. Which is 2,584 more than fracking has ever caused.
It would be absurd to ban coal mining because of occasional accidents – just as it would be absurd to ban cars because of car accidents.
Except that when it comes to fracking, the accidents just haven’t happened.
But, given Nova Scotia had already banned fracking, why did they re-ban it again now?
Well, Nova Scotia has a Liberal government. There is an election right now in neighbouring New Brunswick, and fracking is a key issue in the campaign there. And the Conservatives are running on a pro-fracking campaign.
So re-banning fracking was a campaign stunt – the Liberals in Nova Scotia trying to help the Liberals in New Brunswick.
It’s politics.
But it’s the worst kind of politics – the politics of defeat, the politics of “no,” the politics of a political and media class more comfortable with welfare than with work.
Atlantic Canada’s Liberals have a policy choice: fill government coffers through oil and gas jobs and the taxes that come from them, or live off the avails of other, richer province like Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. Who are rich in part because of fracking.
What Nova Scotia’s Liberals are really is saying is, they’ll take the profits from fracking.
They just won’t actually do the fracking. Let those western boys do the hard work. Nova Scotia will be content to live off the scraps from equalization transfers.
They might as well put up a big billboard on the highways leading into the province: Nova Scotia is closed for business.
In the past, Atlantic Canada could blame bad luck or global trends outside of its own control. Like when the fisheries declined, and thousands of Atlantic Canadians just couldn’t work – there just weren’t cod in the sea.
Or when the coal mines just weren’t economic anymore, or the Sydney steel mills.
But banning the oil and gas industry, and fracking – the largest source of job growth in North America, and the source of the highest-paying jobs – isn’t an accident, or just tough luck. It is a willful decision.
Of course, plenty of Nova Scotians work in fracking right now. They just have to leave their home and travel west to do it. Don’t ever say Atlantic Canadians lack initiative.
They have loads of it. Enough to leave their home province for work, a thousand miles away. Nova Scotia’s anti-jobs policies have purged so many young people, its average age is a full three years older than the national norm. It has the greatest proportion of senior citizens in the country. The young people have all gone west.
But hey, Yoko Ono and other celebrities approve, right Liberals?
Nova Scotia closed for business | Ezra Levant
Exactly.
Were there any justice in the world, there would be NO more equalization payments made to Nova Scotia. They have the riches buried in the ground, they just are not willing to extract it......but wish to be a parasite on the back of those that DO use their natural resources.
Same for New Brunswick, if we are damned fool enough to vote Liberal on Sept. 22, which looks likely.
BTW, the rumour mill has it that BOTH NS and NB have HUGE natural gas deposits.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill
