U.S. President Donald Trump in Detroit on Tuesday.MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Coming down on the pipe
Re “Canada needs a pipeline to the future” (Editorial, Jan. 9): It turns out that the Canadian economy will suffer “with each new barrel of Venezuelan crude.” I guess we should have started investing more in renewable energy production a decade ago, after all. Live and learn, I guess.
Jonathan Ball Toronto
Why argue for the building of another pipeline to carry Alberta tar sands oil to the coast of B.C., where more tankers would pose a serious threat to a sensitive maritime environment and the people, Indigenous and settler, who depend on it. Have the financial lessons of the last pipeline construction project been forgotten? Are the profound environmental costs of extracting and processing bitumen to make it usable somehow irrelevant?
Meanwhile, we are missing the boat. Many countries are making the transition to renewables – solar and wind power. The costs of doing so are falling, and the benefits increasingly obvious.
Please stop kowtowing to fossil fuel interests and start promoting energy sources that will give our grandchildren hope for a livable planet.
Elizabeth Lominska Johnson Penticton, B.C.
“Pipeline” doesn’t resonate with “future.”
You say new customers for Canadian fossil fuels are essential to fight Mr. Trump, that adding capacity for Alberta oil will develop export markets, reduce reliance on the U.S. market and help our economic autonomy.
Mr. Trump also wants to expand fossil fuel sales. Other oil-supported governments are opening the taps to monetize deposits before markets peak. That’s not a wise place to compete. Strategists from Sun Tzu to Carl von Clausewitz teach that fighting on the enemy’s ground with the enemy’s weapons is a loser’s fight plan.
Instead, generate renewable energy for nationwide distribution on a smart grid. Build it using Canadian people, Canadian steel and aluminum. Enhance energy independence and resilience, reduce the cost of living, energize new industries, build new technologies and skills for export. There’s a project of national significance.
Don’t play in Mr. Trump’s sandbox. We cannot win there.
John Kidder Ashcroft B.C.
Yes, about that oil
Re “When it comes to Trump’s behaviour, the most plausible explanation is the stupidest” (Opinion, Jan. 7): I am not as pessimistic about the importation of Venezuelan oil into the U.S. market.
Yes, Venezuelan oil is of “a particularly sludgy variety,” but Gulf refineries were specifically designed to refine that oil when they were built decades ago. Given that Alberta oil sands bitumen has about the same viscosity, it is why Canada has been able to sell so much oil to these Gulf refineries, particularly since Hugo Chávez nationalized the Venezuelan oil industry.
(The United States does export oil, but it is of the “light oil” variety, a type that Gulf refineries are not well suited to refine, making it more profitable to export.)
As for concerns about Venezuelan oil resulting in lower oil prices, Donald Trump would probably welcome that: It puts pressure on the current supplier of heavy oil to Gulf refineries – Canada – right at a time when the trade agreement between us is being reviewed.
George Parker Cobourg, Ont.
The better part of valour
Re “Rising U.S. influence in Latin America could benefit Scotiabank’s growth plans, CEO says” (Report on Business, Jan. 7): I always thought that one of the main tenets of banking was discretion, but it is hard for me to imagine a statement more indiscreet and inappropriate than that reported here.
It basically tells the people of Latin America that they are incapable of running their affairs in a manner pleasing to foreigners trying to do business in their countries – and that these foreigners would rather see the United States have a hand in seeing change in their favour. The arrogance is astonishing to me, and the chances this creates goodwill for a retail organization, well, should not be very good.
Even if not widely reported to the public, I believe this attitude will permeate the organizational structure of Scotiabank’s network there.
Hal Hartmann West Vancouver
Cry havoc!
Re “America’s shocking silence” (Opinion, Jan. 7): I share this dismay at the paucity of public response in the United States to the actions of the Trump administration.
William Lyon Mackenzie King was prescient in recognizing the perils of such disengagement: “Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government.”
Let us hope for more expressions of public opinion in the weeks and months to come – and in the U.S. midterm elections.
Jeff Balderson Kingston
Shifting gears
Re “Canada urgently needs a plan to protect the auto industry” (Report on Business, Jan. 8): We believe it’s wrong to frame Canada’s Electric Vehicle Availability Standard as a threat to the auto industry. EVAS is one of the few tools Canada has to protect auto jobs in a rapidly changing global market.
EVAS doesn’t “ban” Canadian-made vehicles or shut down factories, it phases in gradually and encourages retooling and innovation in the industry. Canadian plants have successfully transitioned before, and freezing them in yesterday’s technology would make closures more likely, not less.
The shift to electric vehicles isn’t ideological – it’s global. Major economies representing most vehicle sales have firm EV timelines. Repealing EVAS wouldn’t stop that transition, it would leave Canadian workers unprepared for it.
Corporate tax cuts boost profit, but don’t guarantee affordability or competitiveness. Nor do high tariffs on lower-cost EVs; they protect high prices, not consumers.
Clear standards and real competition, not giveaways, are how Canada builds an auto industry for the future.
Sam Hersh Program manager, clean transportation, Environmental Defence; Ottawa
Chinese EVs, please
Re “Ontario Premier Ford asks Carney not to cut tariffs on Chinese EVs” (Jan. 9): Here we go again. Can’t we wake up and trade with the world, take the best products at the lowest prices and allow our products and services to be sold reciprocally?
Surely we can allow Chinese electric vehicles into Canada with local parts and manufacturing plants. I want an EV with the best range, technology and price. Right now, they come from China.
Len McQuat Lanark Highlands, Ont.
Downsizing
Re “I love my new small-town life” (First Person, Jan. 7): An essay writer left behind big shows in big-city venues for tribute acts near his new home in the countryside.
Evolution goes like this: Attend big shows, fail to keep track as big shows change, attend tribute acts, fail to keep track of whom they pay tribute to.
Drew Fagan New Haven, Conn.
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