Advertisement 1

Your letters for Sept. 18

Article content

Renewables can’t pave the way to financial stability for Canada

Re: We must invest in renewables, not a pipeline, Letter, Sept. 14

In the past year, it has not been unusual to read that Canada needs to shift from producing oil and building pipelines to renewable power generation. I would like to draw attention to the fact that the large pipeline projects making headlines are often intended to export product from Canada, or to displace product imports. This is a significant point.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content
Article content

For Canada, oil does not just represent energy for consumption. It represents one of Canada’s largest sources of export revenue, which foreign countries willingly pay Canada for. The value received supports Canada’s balance of trade and currency value. While I expect Canada’s energy sources to change over time, I don’t expect foreign countries to have new demand for tens of billions of dollars/year of Canadian renewable energy, which could be generated in their own countries at a competitive advantage due to lower transmission costs.

Canada’s balance of trade has been primarily negative in recent years, as we depend heavily on imported goods to maintain our lifestyle. If we wish to continue importing, we need to also be offering value-added export products for sale. What do we have to offer, that foreign buyers want, worth tens of billions of dollars per year? I don’t see renewables to have a competitive advantage in this regard.

Ron Umbsaar, Calgary

Eastern Canada could be taking western oil

Re: Saudi oil attack bolsters crude and share prices, Sept. 17

Thankfully, Eastern Canada can be supplied by plentiful and ethical oil from Western Canada. There is no reason to fear the supply disruptions caused by instability in the war-torn Persian Gulf. Alberta will be glad to increase shipments to the Irving Oil refinery in New Brunswick via the recently completed Energy East pipeline. Oh, wait, never mind.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

Paul Poscente, Calgary

Confusions reigns over city projects

Re: City weighs fast-tracking Green Line LRT to north, Sept. 16

I read with some interest the City proposal to go ahead and devise a plan to start building the new northern leg of the LRT and a councillor’s assertion this passed because seven councillors did not know where Ward 3 was?! Scary. But no more so than the idea of starting to plan and execute this project of several billion dollars when no one has a clue about how or where the end of the line is going.

I agree with Councillor Keating who said doing this without a solution to bring the line across the Bow River does not  make sense. I also note another column says that a third party of engineers had been hired to oversee the planning. Why are we employing our own engineers?

I thought the City was short of funds, yet here we are investing several million dollars for a new events centre at the Stampede grounds, and also a very expensive transit project at the same time?

Diane Chalupiak, Calgary

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers