The ongoing dispute over twinning the Kinder Morgan pipeline kind of reminds us of Penticton’s dispute over waterslides in Skaha Lake Park.
The scale and the subject matter are completely different — it’s likely people would choose a waterslide complex over an oil pipeline if they were forced to pick what was going to be built in their park.
On the other hand, in both cases, the dispute is dividing communities. The priority for our governments — in this case, B.C., Alberta and Canada — should be working together to make life better for all citizens and finding compromises, not blindly defending a fixed position.
The dispute is also similar when it comes to the money being spent on all sides fighting, whether that be in lawyer bills, cost of delays, or simply advertising. It’s all money that could be put to far better use than investing in the legal system.
Now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced the federal government will use $4.5 billion of taxpayer money to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline and all of Kinder Morgan Canada’s core assets. Kinder Morgan will proceed with work on twinning the pipeline while the sale is being finalized.
We can all heave a sigh of relief the City of Penticton didn’t decide to buy Trio out and go ahead with building a waterslide complex for a private partner to run.
There’s another similarity. In both cases, the powers that be are disregarding the voices of a significant portion of the population. In Penticton, it took a couple of years for city hall to admit that waterslide opponents couldn’t be brushed off as just a vocal minority that would fade away.
The dispute over the waterslides gave some cause to wonder if Penticton was a good place to invest in. Likewise, the government to government dispute is tarnishing both provincial and national reputations.
As Penticton city council learned, our governments need to do a better job of listening to and working with, not against, their citizens.