Quote:
Originally Posted by Cappy
I dont accept it as an unchangeable fact, but its certainly not an easily changeable fact. Cost of materials, cost of land, Provincial opponents looking at their own bottom line, environmental assessments. These all need to be reduced - not easy.
I propose two alternatives, free market and Government intervention (perhaps there is a third, PPP).
My issue was with the original assertion that we are where we are based on government / regulatory regimes of the past 20 years. I merely proposed the free market is also at blame - albeit because they merely chose the cheapest solutions which was increased US trade.
TMX expansion was a good step, and something I do not oppose the government doing - as long as they don't choose to sell the pipeline off for pennies and actually bring in cash.
NDP also had the same idea for Oil by Rail contracts that were cancelled or sold off by Kenney (i can admit my knowledge on these agreements is limited)
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I mean, two of the four things you listed (provincial issues and environmental assessments) are something that are directly influenced and controlled by the federal government, and what we’ve seen over the last decade is that the government has had no interest in alleviating these burdens (eg. Bill C-69).
You can throw your hands in the air and say it’s difficult to change these things, but step 1 is having a government in place that is willing to prioritize them. I think until you see some changes on that front, it’s harder to say that the free market is to blame, and it’s especially difficult to put blame on the free market when it has behaved exactly as the free market is intended to. Only by completing step 1 first can you actually argue that the free market is to blame.