Canadian residents – both local and across the country – gathered as part of a National Day of Action to stop the Kinder Morgan buyout.
Just over a dozen area residents gathered outside Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong’s Fergus office to express their anger at the Trudeau government’s plan to purchase the Kinder Morgan pipeline for $4.5 billion.
Organizers plan to deliver petitions opposing the buyout and urge the federal government not to give the Texas-based company any taxpayer money.
The action is one of more than 100 across Canada.
Event co-organizer Liz Armstrong of Erin said, “I am outraged that Prime Minister Trudeau is giving away billions of our tax dollars to a Texas corporation when our schools and hospitals are crying out for money, many First Nations don’t have safe drinking water, and we could be supporting renewable energy initiatives and jobs across Canada.”
In her presentation, Armstrong asked why the group was protesting the federal government’s planned $4.5-billion buyout of the pipeline in front of Chong’s office instead of a Liberal MP’s office.
She stated old pipelines, tar sands bitumen and climate change “should not be a partisan political issue in Canada.”
Instead, Armstrong said, “Every politician everywhere needs to be working to solve the terrifying, reckless and preventable problem of climate change.”
She stated politicians such as Chong already understand that revenue neutral carbon pricing is the best way for Canada to lower its greenhouse gas emissions and that “government subsidies to the oil and gas industry have got to go.”
Armstrong added, “Instead of pitting Canadians against each other we want to bring communities together. Instead of increasing global warming emissions, we aim to bring them down so we can meet our Paris promises, and more. Instead of clinging to a fading past, we choose to embrace the future.”
