Re: “B.C. joins legal battle against Trans Mountain pipeline push,” Aug. 11.
I am an avid bicyclist here in Winnipeg, using my bike to get to work, for recreation, shopping, etc. This past weekend, I was stopped by two large tanker trains, each one carrying about 100 rail cars full of crude oil, right through the heart of my city.
Every year, we get more and more rail traffic hauling crude oil because our petroleum can’t be shipped safely by pipelines — causing the oil companies to move production right through the heart of our city (and the trains go directly through the middle). One oil spill would cause tens of millions of dollars in damage. Without doubt, shipping via pipeline is 100 times safer than shipping by rail tankers.
This is all happening while the people responsible — those B.C. legislators in Victoria preventing the movement of petroleum through pipelines — have been pumping raw sewage into the ocean for as long as the city has been in existence. No other large city in Canada creates this level of pollution.
It stuns me that the self-righteous left-wingers in Victoria can be so smug about exporting pollution — and force the rest of the country and the oceans to pay for their recklessness. So a big shout-out to the people of Victoria. We can only hope that there is such a thing as karma.
Randy Boldt
Winnipeg
