Editor:
I am surprised that your Sept. 27 Canadian Press online story about (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau’s promise to spend $3 billion planting two billion trees over the next decade simply allowed the assertion that this would be financed by “pipeline revenue.”
It is common knowledge that the Parliamentary Budget Officer has reported (https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/en/blog/news/trans-mountain-pipeline-updated-cdev-financial-reporting) that Trans Mountain Canada has been operating at a multi-million-dollar loss and that project delays are costing it more millions.
Aside from that, the company is going further into debt to cover insurance and construction costs totaling many more millions.
So where does this “pipeline revenue” exist, other than at the tip of Mr. Trudeau’s glib tongue? Sounds like another campaign promise, like many before it, that there is no intention to honour.
Gene McGuckin, New Westminster
Editor’s note: The “pipeline revenue” referred to is future revenues once the TMX project is completed and operational. That is, of course, if the project is actually completed and turns a profit. Revenues could also come from the project being purchased by one of the consortiums planning bids. That also is an “if,” but these are potential revenues. As the NOW stated in a 2018 editorial, this project has plenty of boondoggle potential.
