(Image credit: Mel Rothenburger).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: All’s quiet on the TMX front; maybe a little too quiet

Mar 19, 2022 | 6:43 AM

ALL IS QUIET on the Trans Mountain front, at least on the section that runs through the North Thompson Valley including Black Pines. Maybe a little too quiet.

A year ago, contractors were getting geared up to begin the process of ripping up farmland, digging the trench running parallel to the existing line, and moving in massive equipment and stockpiles of new pipe. (Little did we know the steel for that pipe was supplied by a now-sanctioned Russian oligarch.)

It was supposed to take a few weeks but it took many months. All summer long and into the fall, they did their noisy, ground-shaking work. By the time the snow fell, the pipe was in the ground and they moved on.

(Sadly, the “frog fence” that was installed in hopes of helping at-risk Western and Spadefoot toads find their way back to the river after hibernating in the hills across Westsyde Road during the cold months doesn’t seem to have worked. In a normal fall, thousands would make their way through our place from the river to their hibernation grounds; last fall, I didn’t see a single one making the journey.)

Then, there was blessed quiet, the winter months punctuated only by the occasional rumbling and whistling of the trains on the other side of the river. With the melting of the snow — revealing once again the ugly brown scar of the right of way — and tomorrow’s official arrival of spring, we now wait for the crews to return to finish up what they didn’t get done last year: seeding for new grass, rebuilding fences, graveling of driveways, completion of archeology work on “red zones” that have been staked off with no activity for almost a year.

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(A “red zone” is an area in which some possible signs of ancient human presence have been found, such as tiny pieces of stone that may have come from the making of a tool or weapon.)

I must say the contractors did a good job of returning the surface to a reasonable semblance of its former self but one wonders whether it will all have been a waste of time and money — our money. As of a couple of weeks ago, the cost of the project has jumped to an astounding $21.4 billion. Completion isn’t expected until the third quarter of 2023. According to Trans Mountain, the soaring costs have been caused by “project enhancements, changes, delays and financing” plus the pandemic and last fall’s floods.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says no more public money will be invested in Trans Mountain but new funding will be found through third-party financing. Says economist Robyn Allen: “The Trans Mountain project is out of control, and Canadian taxpayers are facing an even greater burden than before.” Allen adds that the rising costs are “a clear indication of just how badly it’s being managed” and “it’s not likely to be the last increase we will see.”Other experts say private investors would need a loan guarantee from the government and environmental groups — which, of course, would like to see the project fail — are warning banks not to fund it. “Is this the end of the Trans Mountain expansion?” reads a hopeful headline on the Wilderness Committee website.

“Nobody in their right mind would invest in a project that is already running four times its original budget and years behind scheduled,” the article goes on to say.

The federal NDP calls the whole thing “a boondoggle” and “clearly unprofitable.”

Also of note is that Trans Mountain president Ian Anderson has decided to retire next month. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him and hearing him speak on several occasions and always found him forthright and confident in the project. He’s the sort of fellow one would think of when looking for somebody to get the job done, so his departure isn’t good news for TMX.

I wonder, though, whether the war in Ukraine and the resulting urgency for more oil will help the project to completion.

But as spring gradually takes hold, questions will undoubtedly continue to mount about the future of the expansion. As politicians and bankers talk in terms of billions of dollars, in this little part of the world the modest hope is that they have enough left for some fencing and seeding.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.