“Nation-Building” or Nation-Breaking? The True Cost of Canada’s Fossil Fuel obsession

While the current government is cutting essential public services such as postal delivery in an attempt for “ambitious savings proposals,” it continues to pour billions into so-called “nation-building” projects. Have they not learned their lesson from the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project?

~$27 billion over-budget (over six times more than initial estimates)

• A report published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development revealed that TMX has cost Canadian taxpayers $9-19 billion, making it one of the largest oil subsidies in the world for a single project.
• Another report from IEEFA Canada found that the direct funding Canada provided for TMX totals $35.6 billion—roughly $1.4 billion more than typically reported. The indirect financial subsidies raise government exposure to over $40 billion.

7 years delayed 

• When the TMX project was initially proposed in 2012, its completion date was set for late 2017. However, commercial operations did not begin until May 2024.
• Trudeau’s government announced in 2018 that it was purchasing the expansion project from its then-owner Kinder Morgan for $3.5B ($4.5B Canadian). The project was then approved to start in 2019, but commercial operations did not begin until May 2024.

By appointing Dawn Farrell, a former fossil fuel executive, as CEO of the Major Projects Office, the government has continued to align itself with the interests of extractive industry players and fossil financiers, instead of prioritizing just, sustainable, and liberatory pathways forward. 

• Given her track record of overseeing long-delayed and costly projects like TMX, can we trust someone like Dawn Farrell to bring about the economic prosperity the MPO promises? 
• This is an extremely expensive, destructive, and short-sighted attempt at “nation-building” that reinforces a Canadian petrostate over Indigenous sovereignty, climate justice, and our shared futures.

Bill C-5 allows the Cabinet to unilaterally approve fossil fuel projects before environmental impact assessments or Indigenous consultation and consent. There is currently no definitive framework for deciding what constitutes a “project of national interest,” but this rhetoric has been repeatedly weaponized to justify fossil fuel expansion and profit-driven agendas, ushering in a new era of colonial violence and settler nationalism.

• When the federal government purchased the TMX pipeline for $4.5 billion back in 2018, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked a similar sentiment of upholding the “national interest.” Ironically, with TMX’s total cost having ballooned to $34.2B, the current estimated worth of TMX, $29.6B -$33.4B, is below that. So even with a profit-driven agenda, resource extraction projects do not make sense.
• Canada’s Big Banks (TD, RBC, CIBC, BMO, Scotiabank, and the National Bank of Canada) financed $10 billion in loans to TMC under the condition that the federal government guarantee taxpayer money would supplement additional costs. With the launch of the Major Projects Office (MPO), the Big Banks stand to profit even more—through interest on loans, trading and investments, equity financing, and other means—thanks to federal commitments to connecting private sector financiers with “projects of national interest.”
• Is it truly in the national interest to have public and private financiers pour billions into resource extraction projects that incur significant debt, cause irreparable harm to Indigenous lifeways, degrade critical ecosystems, further fracture Indigenous-settler relations, worsen climate disasters, and severely compromise the health and well-being of our communities?

Students’/locals’ perspectives: TMX activism in Burnaby then and now

• Since Trans Mountain Corporation’s (TMC) expansion plans began in 2012, activists in Burnaby have been raising awareness about the safety and environmental risks these plans pose to the community through meetings, actions, town halls, and monitoring TMC’s activity.
  • here is a non-exhaustive list of groups doing/supporting this advocacy, in no particular order:
    • Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion (BROKE)
    • Mountain Protectors
    • Protect the Planet Stop TMX
    • Kwekwecnewtxw, Coast Salish Watch House (on Burnaby Mountain)
    • SFU350
    • Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment (CANE)
    • Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE)
    • West Coast Climate Action Network (WE-CAN)
• Now that construction is complete, the Trans Mountain tank farm, located on the same mountain as SFU’s main campus, can house up to 5.5 million barrels of flammable and toxic crude oil and is referred to as a “ticking time bomb” by community members, given its potential to escalate a wildfire from bad to deadly.
• Currently, the City of Burnaby is planning a full-scale emergency evacuation drill for 2027, but until then, the community lives in fear 
• On March 17th, 2025, local activists, including SFU350, held yet another town hall advocating for both the City and SFU to develop proper emergency safety plans, and questioning the City’s signing of a “gag-order” with TMC, preventing the two institutions from speaking negatively about each other, based on “facts or opinions,” in late 2024.
• From the perspective of those who have been fighting this corporation’s presence in our communities for over 13 years with little progress, the naming of Dawn Farrell as CEO of the MPO feels like a slap in the face

Call to action: 

Are you a student? Join the movement against Banks on Campus!

Call on your student union to sign onto this petition

Blog written by SFU350 and Change Course with the help of community member