Why no law enforcement?

These thoughts have been percolating for the last few days and the op ed in the Telegraph Journal yesterday hit the nail on the head, so I decided to put the thoughts to virtual paper.

I am dumbfounded that the law is not being enforced by law enforcement in our fair province. For 2 weeks now, citizens have been illegally blocking a public highway, and have been illegally holding a private companies assets hostage. SWN is a company that is legally working in this province and has paid all the appropriate fees and complies with all the relevant rules and regulations, but is being victimized by citizen's acting on opposition of the laws of the land. As is there right, SWN has gone to the court system to have an injunction put in place to clear the way for law enforcement to clear the road and allow them access to their equipement. But our law enforcement, the RCMP, is not enforcing the law.

Before we go too far here, let me clarify that I am not saying citizen do not have the right to protest against activities they feel are not right...that is a basic right of a democracy. If these protesters were lining the same road with signs and chants against the development of shale gas, I would have no issue here. I wouldn't agree with their point of view, but they have the right to that opinion, and the right to tell the world their opinion.

And now, the Premier of the province is negotiating with those breaking the law. He has essentially legitimized their illegal actions by negotiating with those perpetrating the unlawful acts. The message he is sending to the public is "if you want to negotiate with the government, block a road and ignore the laws". Not to be dramatic, but this is akin to the negotiating with terrorists. Authorities have long had the policy of not negotiating with those breaking the law, but enforcing the laws, and negotiating with those that bring a valid point to the attention of those in power through legal means.

In my opinion, the proper response to those blocking the highway and holding SWN equipment hostage would have been to offer to meet with them and discuss there concerns once the roadblock is removed and SWN's equipment was released.

Negotiating with the protesters also shows a lack of faith in the government's own position that shale gas development can be done safely and that the proper rules and regulations have been put in place. If you truly believe that is the case, there is nothing to negotiate. Based on the stated position of this government, the protesters opinion that the development of this resource will destroy the environment of the province is wrong. If the point of meeting with the protesters is to educate them, then educate, don't negotiate.

The government has made an assessment and decided this industry can be developed safely; now stand by that decision and support the industries development. If the public thinks you are wrong, then that is what the next election is for, to tell you that. I think if you educate people they will see that you are right; but you have to believe in your position yourself and stand by it, if you want to convince us.

Real numbers on oil/gas pipeline failures

I have been reading and watching media coverage of TransCanada's public information sessions on the West-East pipeline over the last week or so and continue to hear from opponents of the pipeline that accidents on the pipeline are inevitable...which is true about any human made system, but the key is to look at the scale of the accidents and the actual probability.

I fear that those talking about "inevitable" accidents are not basing it on true facts, or are using worldwide or USA based statistics. This is like hydrofracking opponents using Pennsylvania as a blueprint for what can happen in New Brunswick. The problem with that logic is that we have much better regulations and oversight rules in Canada, so the comparisons are not apples to apples. Business is supposed to always look for the cheapest way to do things, and if you do not regulate them or give them rules (as happened in Pennsylvania) they will not always use the safest practices. If you were to set up a clothing manufacturing plant in New Brunswick would you use safety statistics from Bangladesh to gauge the potential safety of the New Brunswick plant...of course not.

So I decided to look for actual pipeline safety stats for Canada, and with a pretty quick Google search I found the Transportation Safety Board of Canada's 2012 pipeline accident rates. http://goo.gl/yNiIha
Any accidents on pipelines or related facilities must be reported to TSBC, so these numbers can be trusted.

In 2012, 7 accidents occured along Canada's 18,000+km of piplines, down from the 5 year average of 9/year.  Of the 7 accidents, none were on the actual pipeline itself, all were at facilities; so compressor stations, pump stations, meter stations or a gathering line. These facilities are located either at the terminal sites of the pipeline or at intervals along the line. So not over or near waterways, not in farmers fields, not in the middle of nature preserves.

Over a 10 year period, only 18% of accidents occurred on the actual transmission line. Interestingly, of the 93 accidents reported from 2003-2012, 52 resulted in release of product (oil/gas) and only one was over 1,000 cubic meters in size.

So while these numbers back up the idea that accidents happen on pipelines in Canada, it also shows that these accidents are exceedingly rare and mostly result in very little product being leaked into the environment.

I imagine if we looked at the safety statics of transporting oil and gas by train, or other methods, we would find accidents are much more common. A train or a truck operate in a much less controlled environment and have much more touch points allowing for human error. There are no drunk drivers or sleep deprived operators on a pipeline.

Trust in government

I am disheartened to see that the province of New Brunswick may be on the verge of letting a great opportunity pass us by, and many due to a general lack of trust in government. The province has proven reserves of natural gas locked away in shale formations, and several companies are interested in developing it. This could transform New Brunswick into a "have" province. And the government is putting the proper regulations and protections in place to make it happen. But when it comes to trusting our elected officials, and public servants, to run the province and protect the best interests of the province, many seem to feel it is a myth. They feel like the government will mortgage the future for current gain, and that they are too incompetent to manage the resource properly.

Now I am the first to admit that our public sector is not the most efficient service delivery mechanism in the world, but if we stop trusting them to do anything at all, our whole system will start to fail. If citizens stop believing in their governments ability to govern, then the system has failed.

I am of the belief that the majority of elected officials and public servants truly want to do what is best for the province. There may be mistakes and inefficiencies along the way, but in general the public good is what they are striving for. So when push comes to shove, my initial tendency is trust that they will enforce the rules and regulations, that they will do what is best for the general population, but I fear I am in the minority.

The truth of the matter is that the real power in government lies with the civil servants, not the elected officials. The governing party can sway policy, but the public servants are in it for the long haul and don't want to destroy the province anymore that the citizens do.

This lack of trust in government, and lack of trust in oil companies, has lead to much of the opposition to this opportunity. The public told the government that they wanted their water and environment protected; so the government developed the most comprehensive set of regulations ever devised for the shale gas industry. The opposition to shale gas development said "learn from other jurisdictions mistakes"; so the government looked at the mistakes made in the US and learned that most of the pollution caused by fracking has happened in US states were the industry has little or no oversight and no regulations are in place. In area's where regulations and oversight is in place (Alberta, BC, Sask), there has been very few issues.

As David Campbell notes in his blog today, two of the largest environmentalist groups in North America, the Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund, have essentially agreed that with good planning and regulation, shale gas can be developed with minimal damage to the environment. (davidcampbell.com/?p=5958) .

So why do 50% of citizens polled still think shale gas development should be halted? Well a small percentage of them are of the opinion that we should stop using fossil fuels immediately and go back to living off the land, but still more of these citizens don't trust the government to protect them and the environment as they have promised to do. The anti-shale gas lobby is partly to blame, and perhaps citizens should do more of their own research before forming opinions, but the fact remains that if citizens still trusted their governments, they would hear the government's promise to put proper regulations in place, and trust that that is what will happen.

Of course, its not just the government that we don't trust, its the big bad oil companies. The idea that these companies are crooked and just throw around money so they can ignore regulations seems to persist. I can tell you from experience that these companies are definitely focused on making as much money as possible, but what company is not. But they also know that if they run roughshod over the regulations and environments they want to work in, they are quickly going to run out of places that will let them develop resources. In today's global business environment, companies know that they must play by local rules if they want to stay in business.

So we must trust our government to enforce the regulations they have set out, and to do what they say they will do. Sure the elected officials want to erase the financial problems of the province and thus be the heroes and get re-elected; but the civil servants who actually are in charge of enforcement of the rules and regulations, are bound by the rules and their duty to protect the provinces resources and future.

Don't sympathize with lawlessness...even if you agree with their cause.

For those who express sympathy or support for those arrested in New Brunswick for breaking the law, or those breaking the law and not getting caught, in the name of stopping shale gas development, I provide another perspective that may change your sympathies.   

To my knowledge, SWN (the oil company currently doing the majority of the exploration in NB) is doing all of its work to the letter of the law and regulations set out by the province of New Brunswick. If anyone is damaging their equipment, blocking roads or otherwise impeding their lawful business in New Brunswick, they should be arrested and prosecuted to the letter of the same laws that governs SWN's business in New Brunswick.

You may argue that the regulations or laws governing SWN's operation in the province are ill-conceived or perhaps the process at arriving at these regulations was illegitimate. But I submit that disagreeing with the law, or the process around creating the law or regulation, is not grounds to break said law, or break other laws.

Let's look at it through a different lens; when development of the Corbett Center shopping area in the City of Fredericton was proposed, there was a segment of the population that felt this was not a legitimate use of this land, and the process by which it was approved was flawed. Did this belief mean that these citizens should be allowed to damage these stores, or block supply routes to these stores without being prosecuted? If someone vandalized the Costco store because they were morally opposed to "big box" retailers, would you be sympathetic to the vandalizer? Likely not...so why is SWN held to a higher standard than Costco, or Home Depot?

If you don't feel that shale gas development should move forward, or you feel the process of regulating the industry is flawed, don't take it out on law abiding businesses; take it out on the government. March on public property; set up pickets outside government offices, do whatever peaceful protest you want, but if you prevent a company from doing its law abiding business, you should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law; just as SWN will be if they break any of the laws or regulations of this province. 

Ignoring or devaluing any law is a slippery slope...vigilantism might make for a fun movie plot, but you don't want it in your town.