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I was dismayed to read Canada's Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan pronounce his government's "non-negotiable" opposition to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order to close the damaged and corroding 68-year-old Enbridge Pipeline Line 5, which runs under the Straits of Mackinac.
This pipeline poses an imminent threat to the shared waters that millions of Canadians and Americans depend upon for life, agriculture, commerce and recreation.
Currently operating in violation of a critical permit required by the State of Michigan, this pipeline poses an imminent threat to the shared waters that millions of Canadians and Americans depend upon for life, agriculture, commerce and recreation--and which both countries are committed to protect under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
I was honoured to serve for nine years as the U.S. section chair of the International Joint Commission (IJC), a Canadian-American organization created by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to advise our respective governments on these shared resources. Having no association with IJC since retiring in 2019, the views expressed here are mine alone.
I am speaking out because the danger of a breach of this age-compromised pipeline spanning a major shipping lane in the world's largest freshwater body increases with every passing day.
For more than a century, the IJC has counselled both federal governments on the management and protection of our shared waters. With three Canadian and three U.S. commissioners, no IJC decision is made without binational agreement. IJC's most important contributions to Canada and the United States are invariably based on science and thoughtful negotiations. These recommendations have frequently been informed by provincial, state, First Nations, Metis and municipal governments--each of which maintains its respective governing authority to protect the waters.
It is in this tradition and in our nations' shared interest in the long-term health of the Great Lakes that one would expect binational acknowledgement of these established facts:
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I was dismayed to read Canada's Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan pronounce his government's "non-negotiable" opposition to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order to close the damaged and corroding 68-year-old Enbridge Pipeline Line 5, which runs under the Straits of Mackinac.
This pipeline poses an imminent threat to the shared waters that millions of Canadians and Americans depend upon for life, agriculture, commerce and recreation.
Currently operating in violation of a critical permit required by the State of Michigan, this pipeline poses an imminent threat to the shared waters that millions of Canadians and Americans depend upon for life, agriculture, commerce and recreation--and which both countries are committed to protect under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
I was honoured to serve for nine years as the U.S. section chair of the International Joint Commission (IJC), a Canadian-American organization created by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to advise our respective governments on these shared resources. Having no association with IJC since retiring in 2019, the views expressed here are mine alone.
I am speaking out because the danger of a breach of this age-compromised pipeline spanning a major shipping lane in the world's largest freshwater body increases with every passing day.
For more than a century, the IJC has counselled both federal governments on the management and protection of our shared waters. With three Canadian and three U.S. commissioners, no IJC decision is made without binational agreement. IJC's most important contributions to Canada and the United States are invariably based on science and thoughtful negotiations. These recommendations have frequently been informed by provincial, state, First Nations, Metis and municipal governments--each of which maintains its respective governing authority to protect the waters.
It is in this tradition and in our nations' shared interest in the long-term health of the Great Lakes that one would expect binational acknowledgement of these established facts:
I was dismayed to read Canada's Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan pronounce his government's "non-negotiable" opposition to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order to close the damaged and corroding 68-year-old Enbridge Pipeline Line 5, which runs under the Straits of Mackinac.
This pipeline poses an imminent threat to the shared waters that millions of Canadians and Americans depend upon for life, agriculture, commerce and recreation.
Currently operating in violation of a critical permit required by the State of Michigan, this pipeline poses an imminent threat to the shared waters that millions of Canadians and Americans depend upon for life, agriculture, commerce and recreation--and which both countries are committed to protect under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
I was honoured to serve for nine years as the U.S. section chair of the International Joint Commission (IJC), a Canadian-American organization created by the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 to advise our respective governments on these shared resources. Having no association with IJC since retiring in 2019, the views expressed here are mine alone.
I am speaking out because the danger of a breach of this age-compromised pipeline spanning a major shipping lane in the world's largest freshwater body increases with every passing day.
For more than a century, the IJC has counselled both federal governments on the management and protection of our shared waters. With three Canadian and three U.S. commissioners, no IJC decision is made without binational agreement. IJC's most important contributions to Canada and the United States are invariably based on science and thoughtful negotiations. These recommendations have frequently been informed by provincial, state, First Nations, Metis and municipal governments--each of which maintains its respective governing authority to protect the waters.
It is in this tradition and in our nations' shared interest in the long-term health of the Great Lakes that one would expect binational acknowledgement of these established facts: