Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Open Transparent Government


Not a chance, meet the New Government same as the Old Government.

Potentially embarrassing information requests "amber-lighted"

The Harpocrites are denying there is any such program. But denying it doesn't make it so.

And while we are at it how about making patronage appointments for old pals of the government like Harvie Andre. Who having promoted the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline when he was in the Mulroney government will now promote the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline as the negotiator for the New Government of Canada. Something he has a great deal of experince with since he has been lobbying for the pipeline as a private consultant. Wait a minute can you say conflict of interest?

Mackenzie Valley Pipeline

The latest round of pipeline fever began last October when former federal Conservative cabinet minister Harvie Andre unveiled an ambitious $8-billion plan to bring both Prudhoe Bay and delta gas on stream as early as 2005. Andre is a Calgary management consultant and the Canadian chairman of Arctic Resources Co. Ltd., a new consortium launched by a group of Texas financiers. They are proposing a 1,760-km pipeline, from Boundary Lake on the northern B.C.-Alberta border to the Mackenzie Delta, that would connect with a second 520-km line to Prudhoe Bay to be built offshore, in the seabed. Andre argues that the economies of scale realized by harnessing both the Prudhoe and delta reserves would significantly improve the rate of return for producers. He also maintains that, by planting the Prudhoe Bay portion offshore, the environmental risks identified in the 1970s can be sidestepped. "Twenty-five years ago, there weren't a lot of ocean-bottom pipelines," he says. "The technology has changed enormously and today there are thousands of kilometres of them."

Andre has been involved for months in talks with northern aboriginal groups and territorial government officials. So, too, have TransCanada and Westcoast. In addition to the original Foothills line, the pipeline giants are also actively considering the option of a pipeline through the Mackenzie Valley. "There's a lot of meetings going on," reports Nellie Cournoyea, chairwoman of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp., the body that administers the land claim reached by natives in the Beaufort Sea region in 1984. "The major companies are all in this area and we deal with them every day."


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