What environmentalists are saying about Eby’s push for more oil

Conservationists are concerned that B.C. Premier David Eby is considering expanding oil production in the province.

Pacific Wild, an environmental organization in the province, is worried about potential spills damaging ecosystems and Indigenous claims to land being ignored, all of it funded by large sums of taxpayer dollars.

Ian McAllister is the co-founder of the conservationist group and says it is “really unfortunate” the premier would even entertain this idea.

“It’s just further disappointment to be hearing the premier of the province again backtracking and capitulating,” McAllister told 1130 NewsRadio.

In a press conference on Jan. 6, Eby said, “If we’ve got tens of billions of dollars to spend, I think we should spend it on a refinery.”

McAllister argues that the premier’s pitch is a knee-jerk reaction in the ongoing conversation about a potential pipeline to B.C.’s northwest coast.

“It’s very sudden, and the oil companies and the Alberta government in particular, they’re forgetting decades and decades of strong opposition to these proposals, and it will catch up with them,” McAllister said.

“Right now, people aren’t thinking long term. They’re thinking in a very reactionary way.”

He wants the premier to understand the magnitude of the risk involved in building and operating refineries.

“It is just a risk that we just simply aren’t willing to entertain, and that’s why Eby should just move on. Accept that no pipelines are going to the North Coast to the Great Bear Rainforest. Refineries are just a pipe dream,” McAllister explained.

He says a spill would destroy countless industries that depend on B.C.’s clean water and accuses Eby of ignoring what British Columbians really want.

McAllister is convinced that despite the excitement, people will always oppose pulling more oil out of the ground.

He says Canada should be working to reduce extraction, not increase it.

“It’s just not something that should be in our future. We should be working to decrease our reliance on this dirty oil, not increase it in building refineries. Increasing pipelines takes us in the opposite direction of where we should be going.”

With files from Jan Schuermann.