The joke used to be, “How can you tell when a lawyer isn’t telling the truth? The answer is when you see his lips move”. Now substitute politician and you’ve got it right.

Premier Clark will just happen to be in Edmonton next week and hopes that the Alberta Premier would like to have a bit of a chat with her about pipelines.

At the same time Terry Lake, Minister of Environment, tells us that the only consideration he has re: the Enbridge project will be the environment – from which one must infer he means the idiotic standards laid down some months ago by his boss.

The question is, Madam Premier, what more do you need to know?

Leaving aside the tanker traffic for a moment, last week Enbridge was angered at the suggestion that over the next 50 years there was a 93% chance of a spill and told us that it was “only” 70%!

Are we not all relieved at this news? “Only” 70%!

What isn’t ever mentioned is what damage these spills will cause.

I use the example of the revolver with 100 chambers and just one bullet. In making the decision as to whether or not you put the gun to your head you would calculate the odds at 99-1. But that’s only half the story, for if the revolver only had marshmallow in the chamber, you wouldn’t give a damn about the odds.

But, Madam Clark – these pipelines don’t carry marshmallow but a deadly poison!

But it’s even more than that, Premier – when these spills occur, how will the company get to the spill with heavy equipment? You commented on Enbridge’s handling of the Kalamazoo spill and called it a “disgrace”. And it was, but, Ms. Clark, this spill occurred in a populous state and was easily accessible.

Mr. Lake talks about the environment being the only consideration. Again, what is there that leaves any doubt about the horrendous consequences resulting from an oil spill?

Why doesn’t the minister tell us about all the investigations his ministry has done?

Surely he’s done a great deal, bearing in mind that looking after water is his responsibility. Has he assessed even superficially the 1,000 rivers and streams that will be impacted by an Enbridge pipeline?

My guess is that he has been told to cool it because Ms. Clark entered a deal with the feds that its Joint Review Panel should be considered as binding in BC as well.

Let’s end with a bit of a truth telling exercise. The truth of this horrendous environmental disaster is that the Liberal government did agree to accept the Joint Review Panel’s findings and thus surrendered its environmental jurisdiction to Ottawa.

To make matters worse, BC did not become part of the the Joint Review Panel by becoming a government intervenor as did First Nations – which would have given our province (the province most impacted) “standing” so that they could call witnesses, cross examine witnesses and make a formal argument. The province has no more rights than a private citizen.

Now Premier Clark tries to recapture a piece of the pie by trying to make Alberta’s premier Alison Redford into the bad guy in the picture.

Lest this may have missed our premier’s notice, Ms. Redford also depends upon citizen approval in order to get elected and one must assume that her citizens would cry out like stuck pigs if she gave away money that she didn’t have to.

BC then is in a dunghill of their own making and it could only happen by a huge cock-up by a government that has become an expert in that field.