Experts: Federal government to buy Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5B
“The Liberal government will buy the Trans Mountain pipeline and related infrastructure for $4.5 billion, and spend billions more to build the controversial expansion.” (CBC)
Sébastien Jodoin, Faculty of Law, McGill University
"This decision casts doubt on Canada's ability and willingness to fight climate change. The purchase of the pipeline demonstrates that the Trudeau government is directly supporting the oil industry, while it should take steps to support renewable energy sources and begin a transition to a green economy."—Sébastien Jodoin
Prof. Jodoin's areas of interest include sustainable development, transnational law, public policy, environmental law and governance, climate change, human rights, disability, social innovation, and socio-legal research.
sebastien.jodoin-pilon [at] mcgill.ca (available this afternoon)
Michel A. Bouchard, Expert in Environmental Management and Assessment and Environmental Policies, McGill-UNEP Collaborating Centre on Environmental Assessment
"It's a dramatic turnaround that just happened. However, changing the owner does not change the project. The Trans Mountain pipeline project in its current form increases environmental risks sevenfold and lacks the social acceptability necessary to move forward."— Michel A. Bouchard
Mr. Bouchard is an international expert in Environmental Management and Assessment and Environmental Policies. Since 2000, Professor Bouchard has organized, conceived, and delivered training courses, seminars, workshops and international scientific meetings in Environmental Management and Assessment in France, Belgium, Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Benin, Gabon, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso, DR Congo and Madagascar. Consultant work has been mostly in the field of Strategic Environmental Assessment and extractive industries (Mining in particular).
For interviews, please contact me at 514-398-6693, vincent.allaire [at] mcgill.ca ()vincent.allaire [at] mcgill.ca ( )(available for phone interviews today)
Darin Barney, Department of Art History & Communication Studies, McGill University
“With the nationalization of the Trans Mountain Pipeline project, the Trudeau government has exposed the status of Canada as a petro-state, in the face of ongoing popular opposition, environmental duress, and legal dispute. This clarifies what the Canadian state, in its historical and contemporary forms, has been and is primarily for: securing the conditions of extractive industry.”—Darin Barney
Prof. Barney’s current research, teaching and supervisory interests include: critical theory; political economy; infrastructure; disruptive politics; and philosophy of technology. He is presently completing a project on grain-handling infrastructure and the transformation of political subjectivity on the Canadian prairies, and beginning a project on pipelines as media of political action. He is a member of the Petrocultures Research Group.
darin.barney [at] mcgill.ca (English)