Janet Holder, after three years of riding the stormy seas at the helm of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, has decided to end her 20 years at Enbridge on Dec. 31 and retire to “focus on my family and my personal health.”
The unspoken message is that she is tired of defending the indefensible and dealing with the personal abuse that has been thrown her way.
And a lot of those insults have come from Prince George in north-central British Columbia where she now plans to spend “more time with my husband at our family home.”
It’s still possible that Northern Gateway might find a way over seemingly insurmountable hurdles and proceed.
But the more immediate question being posed is whether Holder is leaving to clear the decks for Enbridge to scrap Northern Gateway, a planned C$7.9 billion twin-pipeline system to export 525,000 barrels per day of crude bitumen to Asia and possibly the United States and import 193,000 bpd of condensate.
Holder’s decision comes only a few weeks after Enbridge executives said the hopes of bringing Northern Gateway on stream in 2018 are “quickly evaporating.”
More seriously, the project is being swamped with court challenges from aboriginal and environmental groups and costs which Enbridge has conceded will be “substantially higher” than its previous estimates because of a more detailed engineering evaluation and costs associated with meeting 209 conditions imposed by the National Energy Board.
Competing proposals
There is also the possibility that other pipeline proposals - TransCanada’s Keystone XL and Energy East and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion, which offer combined capacity of 2.5 million bpd - might start eating into Northern Gateway’s commercial backing.
In a glowing tribute to Holder, Enbridge Chief Executive Officer Al Monaco praised her for guiding “one of the most difficult projects in Canadian history through to regulatory approval, representing Enbridge and its partners with integrity. She built trust with communities by listening to their concerns and demonstrating Northern Gateway’s commitment to building a safe project that protects the environment.”
Holder was put in charge of the project when it no longer had much, or any hope of swaying public opinion, Enbridge having apparently failed in the early years of Gateway to grasp that opposition in British Columbia was unlike anything the company had encountered in Alberta.
With Northern Gateway floundering, Enbridge ended the summer by launching a costly - the company is not saying how costly - campaign through newspapers, Google, social media, digital displays, television and elevators to build on its “positive reputation.”
Using the theme Life Takes Energy, it seized what Communications Vice President D’Arcy Levesque said was an “opportunity to refocus the conversation that is taking place in North America about the role of energy.”
Rather than flogging the tired message about the economic benefits of energy, which many viewed as merely a defense of huge corporate profits, Enbridge tried pitching the role of energy in the “amazing moments that define our quality of life” - such as a “baby’s first bath, a car ride with your dog, an unforgettable dinner or the trip of a lifetime.”
Whether or not that worked is not clear, but Enbridge is still faced with figuring out what, if anything it can do to win anyone over to Northern Gateway.
Environmentalist, First Nations opposition
Environmentalists are becoming more entrenched than ever, having tasted success in their campaigns to stall Keystone XL and Northern Gateway - tactics they are now applying with similar vigor to Energy East and Trans Mountain.
First Nations are equally resolved, unless there is room and a willingness by Enbridge to transfer an even greater share of Northern Gateway’s wealth, through jobs and economic benefits.
That challenge became more daunting in late September when the Federal Court of Appeal granted leave to the Gitxaala Nation to apply for a judicial review of the project’s approval, insisting the Canadian government failed to consider the Gitxaala’s aboriginal rights and title.
There are at least eight other separate legal actions being launched against Enbridge by various First Nations.
The scope of what confronts Northern Gateway has already been acknowledged by new project President John Carruthers, who, before he got the assignment, told a business audience in Calgary that his focus was on building support among First Nations along the pipeline right of way.
“I’m not fussed on what (the startup) date is. I’m more fussed on whether we can have the support we need to go ahead, so it’s positive for all people of Canada, including aboriginal people.
“That’s going to take time and it’s going to take the time it takes,” he said.
