U of G holds shares in Kinder Morgan and Canadian Oil Sands
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has authorized the construction of two controversial pipelines, Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline and Enbridge’s Line 3, while rejecting the Northern Gateway project.
“The decision we took today is the one that is in the best interests of Canada,” Prime Minister Trudeau said in announcing his government’s authorization of the two major projects. “It is a major win for Canadian workers, for Canadian families, and the Canadian economy, now and into the future.”
Supporters of the pipeline argue that the pipeline will provide jobs during construction, as well as an increase in jobs on the Alberta oil sands. Prime Minister Trudeau also argued for the safety of the pipelines and the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions of rail tanker cars.
“[Rail tanker cars are] less economic, and more dangerous for communities, and is higher in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than modern pipelines would be,” the Prime Minister said during his announcement of the pipeline approval.
The government has been laying down the groundwork to approve a major pipeline, promising green-conscious voters with plans to impose a national price on carbon, phase out coal-powered plants by 2030, and overhaul the National Energy Board, the country’s energy regulator.
The Trans Mountain expansion project will nearly triple the capacity of an already existing pipeline by over 890,000 barrels of oil per day.
The 6.8-billion-dollar project will stretch 1,150 km across Alberta into southern B.C., carrying a mix of oil products from Edmonton to a terminal in Burnaby B.C., where it will be subsequently transported to markets in Asia.
On-campus groups such as Fossil Free Guelph (FFG), felt a “general disappointment” in Prime Minister Trudeau’s decision, but the group was “kind of expecting it,” said Benjamin Stuart, a member of the student-centered activist group.
Stuart told The Ontarion that FFG and sister groups like Guelph Against Pipelines (GAP) are now focused on putting pressure on the institutions funding the pipelines, such as the University of Guelph.
“Guelph has this awesome look of being a green school,” Stuart told The Ontarion. “We have biodegradable cups and we have free coffee if you use a reusable mug, but they’re currently investing in the destruction of our planet very silently.”
The University of Guelph currently holds approximately 1,500 shares in U.S. based oil company Kinder Morgan and over 100,000 shares in the Canadian Oil Sands, according to a University’s Endowment fund equity holding report.
Don O’Leary, vice-president of finance and administration at the University said that a task force was struck in April last year, speaking to wishes of divestment. However, O’Leary said that there are currently no active divestment strategies in place at this time.
“[The task force] dealt with the whole issue of the University’s responsibility in responsible investing, whether it be to the fiduciary of earning money for donors [or] the social responsibility of being socially, environmentally, and governance responsible.”
Stuart and members of Fossil Free Guelph believe there is a cognitive dissonance in the way the school approaches environmentally conscious decisions.
“When you pay your tens of thousands of dollars to go to school, you want to be paying for a school that you share morals with. Guelph constantly says these are our morals [and] we love the environmental movement, but they are hypocritically going against what they stand for.”
The next move for on-campus activist groups like FFG and GAP is to support and provide fundraising for the First Nations communities and environmental organizations that are on the “frontline of the battle,” as well as coordinate with the larger groups such as 350.org and Green Peace. However, FFG is hopeful that direct activism can lead to results similar to opposition towards the previously shut down XL Keystone pipeline.
“When construction happens, the main idea is it’s going to play out the same kind of way as the Keystone XL and hopefully will be able to be shut down through mass direct action protests,” said Stuart.
“Climate leaders don’t build pipelines,” he added. “And green schools don’t invest in fuel.”
Photo by Mariah Bridgeman.