Public Perceptions of Pipeline Development in Canada
Date
2018-09-11
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In the last decade, pipelines in Canada have received increasing political attention and decreasing public support. In fact, pipelines have emerged as one of the country’s most contentious political debates, with extensive political and media attention devoted to the Northern Gateway Pipeline, Keystone XL Pipeline, the Energy East Pipeline, and the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project, in recent years. Accordingly, this has resulted in considerable economic, social, and political consequences for all Canadians and an increasingly complex regulatory environment for pipeline developers in Canada. A number of factors can be attributed to these discrepancies in public support for pipelines, such as changing economic conditions following the 2014 fall in global oil prices. However, this study argues that the decline in public support for pipelines is largely due to the ways in which pipelines are framed to the public by dominant political actors in Canada. This study examines the ways in which political actors in Canada use political framing as a way to sway public opinion and the choices of policymakers regarding pipelines. Analyses of various political party debate in the House of Commons, electoral platforms, and public speeches were performed in order to analyze the use of both pro- and anti-pipeline framing by the Conservative Party, Liberal Party, New Democratic Party, and the Green Party of Canada. Three dominant frames were identified, including economic framing (jobs and economic prosperity), environmental framing (the contribution of oil sands development to climate change and other environmental risks), and social framing (impact of pipeline development on Indigenous peoples and local communities). Additionally, data was collected from 24 public opinion polls between 2007 and 2017 to allow for an in-depth understanding of evolving public attitudes towards pipelines in Canada. These polls assessed respondent’s views of pipeline and oil development, climate change, the environment, and attitudes towards former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The analysis reveals three key findings: first, over the last decade, discussion surrounding pipeline development among political parties in Canada has increased drastically. In 2007, the term ‘pipeline(s)’ was mentioned 58 times during debates in the House of Commons. In 2017, this number had jumped to 1,278 mentions. Second, pipelines were framed as a tradeoff between the economy and the environment throughout the decade. For example, the dominant approach of the Conservative Party was to discuss pipelines using economic frames. This was ultimately perceived by the public as policy lacking critical environmental considerations, such as action on climate change. On the contrary, the Liberal Party employed both environmental frames and economic frames in their discussion of pipelines. Though this elicited a more favourable response from Canadians, it also caused them to question the Party’s ability to effectively manage the nation’s economic interests. Third, political rhetoric is significant in its ability to sway public perceptions of policy decisions in Canada. The ability of government policy decisions to reflect the will of the public is critical for successful policy implementation. This is highlighted by the inability of the Conservative Party to garner significant political and pubic buy-in for pipeline development during their tenure (2006-2015). This is largely due to its inability to align their policies and rhetoric in accordance with dominant public desires at the time. As pipelines continue to be a dominant policy issue in Canada, this study aims to provide an understanding to the relationship between public opinion and policy development, and how they interact to shape public perceptions of energy development in Canada.
Description
Keywords
Citation
McLean, J. (2018). Public Perceptions of Pipeline Development in Canada (Unpublished master's project). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.