I am going to side with BC on this one. Do the study, make sure it is done correctly, look at the results, make a decision from there. It is all well and good for Alberta to ship their oil out but it is BC that has to live with the environmental degradation should problems arise. So, Alberta, you want it, do it right.
Framing the increase in terms of jobs as Alberta is doing is a common political ploy, one used extensively in the US. With the Keystone XL they talked about the thousands of jobs that would come from it. What they were much less clear on was that the vast majority of these jobs were only temporary construction jobs and many of those required specific skills that were not going to be abundant in the adjacent areas and would require outside expertise. When it came right down to it the pipeline added, I think it was less than twenty full time jobs. So, bullshit on that argument.
Thirdly, the thing about this being about communities and not Rolexes and Caviar is also crap. Rolexes and Caviar is exactly what it is about. The tax revenue is incidental and the Caviar and Rolex crowd would like those to go away too so they can get all the little extras on their Mercedes as well.
One good thing about this article was that I learned a new idiom: Ragging the Puck. Now if I can just find a way to work it into the conversation…