Today, the Special Committee on the Economic Relationship between Canada and the United States released their interim report reaffirming the importance of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline to both Canada and the US. In March, Executive Director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions, Sean Strickland appeared as a witness in front of the Committee to advocate, on behalf of the over 600,000 skilled trades workers that belong to CBTU, for the continued operation of Line 5 until the Great Lakes Tunnel project is complete.
Hearing the recommendations of the Committee, we were pleased that the Government of Canada is standing up for good, Canadian jobs. The recommendations demonstrate cross-party support for an issue that will affect the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Canadians, at a time of such economic uncertainty.
We support the recommendations to continue bilateral advocacy of government officials, invoking the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty if necessary, a government filed amicus curiae brief to the court of Michigan – and any and all tools at their disposal. CBTU would urge the committee to look at a bilateral, US-Canadian energy policy, one that includes workers, addresses our cross-border energy needs and secures both the US and Canada’s energy future, so we’re not dealing with these issues time and again.
