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The pipeline debate: Moneymaker and job creator, or environmental disaster in the making?

Pipelines from Alberta are in the news a lot these days. And it's only just beginning.

How oil from the oilsands is delivered to market will become one of the biggest issues in politics and, business for years to come.

Most Canadians don't realize just how much oil is in the oilsands around Fort McMurray. It's estimated Canada has the second largest oil reserves in the world, only after Saudi Arabia.

Read David Eby's column

Canada has become a rich country because of our natural resources, and the oilsands are an important part of that. The oilsands alone make a huge contribution to government coffers from coast to coast - as much as half a trillion dollars over the next two decades. A huge part of our future prosperity is linked to how we manage the oilsands.

Some radicals think we can leave the oil in ground, turn off the taps and live on alternative energy. But the practical matter is that for the foreseeable future our entire civilization runs on oil. If the oilsands were shut down or development delayed, we'd still be importing oil from places like Nigeria or Venezuela - and this is bad for the environment since these are countries that do not have the same stringent environmental laws as Canada.

There isn't enough demand in Western Canada for all our oil. We need to export it to new markets, and selling it means more royalties and taxes for the government, which results in more social programs and lower taxes for Canadians.

To sell our oil we need pipelines - pipelines to the U.S. Gulf Coast, to Eastern Canada so they no longer have to import oil from abroad, and to the B.C. Coast so we can export Canada's oil to what will soon be the world's largest energy market - East Asia. Canada's refineries are currently running under capacity, what we need are more pipelines to transport the oil, not refineries.

Of course there are environmental concerns with pipelines and oil tankers. But this is nothing new - tankers have been coming into Vancouver harbour every day for decades without incident. What is new is the technology that has made pipelines and tankers safer than they were even ten years ago.

B.C. needs these new pipelines because they will make Canada richer, make our energy cheaper and get us world prices for our oil exports, which is something all Canadians benefit from.