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Pathway :: Home
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Regina Boosts Trucking - Ignores Peak Oil and Climate Change |
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Contributed by John W. Warnock
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Friday, 01 August 2008 |
 Our political leaders in Regina and the provincial government are overjoyed that Loblaw Companies has announced plans to build a huge warehouse distribution centre just five kilometres west of the city. It will be close to the transport facility that Canadian Pacific announced in early July. Mayor Pat Fiacco believes that this will confirm that Regina will be on the great NAFTA highway, where trucks will be able to take a new freeway all the way deep into Mexico.
Loblaw has stated that about 1400 trucks will utilize this terminal each week. The Mayor has announced that other warehouse operations will also be housed in the same area. The provincial government will upgrade the roads. It is not clear yet who will provide the water and sewer for these projects, but it seems most likely that the City of Regina taxpayers will again be called on to fork up. The pollution from this operation, carried by the prevailing winds, will hit mainly those neighbourhoods north of the railway tracks.
Development in Regina always seems to be based on the short term. Investors must be able to maximize profits in the shortest possible time. We are used to land development companies and builders making all the important decisions. Can anyone remember if we ever had any real city planning?
Peak Oil is a reality
But people living in Saskatchewan are not unaffected by major world developments. Peak Oil is one. Oil prices are rising steadily due to the fact that since the early 1960s we have consumed more oil every year than has been discovered. What oil and gas is left, and available in North America, is much harder and more costly to extract. World oil consumption continues to increase every year. All the experts, including the International Energy Agency, project steady increases into the future. Only serious recessions, like the Asian crisis on 1998, reduce oil prices, and then only temporarily.
No one in Regina has seemed to notice that around the world truckers are striking as they cannot afford the present fuel prices. Yet the political leaders in Saskatchewan and Regina believe the future is in trucking and the long distance transportation of goods. The large supermarket chains like Safeway, Loblaw and Sobeys do not buy locally. They are highly centralized, top down operations. So the project west of Regina is business as usual. But for how long?
Climate change is happening now
Then there is also the reality of climate change. If governments ever decide to take action on greenhouse gas emissions, carbon taxes will further increase the price of oil and gas. Higher transportation costs, linked to higher fuel costs, are already contributing to higher food prices around the world. With the price of oil projected to rise to $200 a barrel by next year, there will undoubtedly be shifts in transportation strategies.
To those who run the City of Regina, it is always business as usual. Under public pressure they have been bringing in experts to give them advice. The consultants recommend a shift to Smart Growth and eco-friendly development. Remember the magnificent plans put forth by Avi Friedman and his colleagues? How quickly they went into the trash bin. The developers are firmly committed to suburban sprawl.
Portland takes a different road
In contrast, Portland, Oregon has been taking all of this very seriously. They created a Peak Oil Task Force to study the issue, to project changes and come up with some solutions. Portland had already broken with business as usual and adopted many Smart Growth options, including putting a boundary limit for the city, mandating the preservation of agricultural land, and introducing programs to assist low income people in their quest for housing. What are some of the findings of the Portland study?
* Automobile use will decline and there will be a greater reliance on expanded public transportation. Air travel will decline significantly.
* The transportation of freight will shift from air and truck to rail and boat.
* The amount and variety of food will decrease, food will cost more, and a shift will be made to local agriculture and processing. Food retailing will shift away from supermarkets in malls to more neighbourhood operations.
*Housing will shift to smaller, energy efficient buildings, and many will have to move to lower-quality housing.
* Higher energy costs will force consumers to reduce their discretionary spending, and this will adversely affect many business operations.
The Smart Growth alternative
The solution proposed by the Portland Peak Oil Task Force called on local, state and federal governments to play a more active role in developing alternatives. The first requirement was to build public knowledge of the situation, leading to broad participation in the planning process.
Fundamentally, there had to be a major change in urban design, away from the suburban growth model that has dominated North American development since the end of World War II and the introduction of the automobile economy. They endorsed all the proposals which are well known as central to the Smart Growth strategy. Emphasis is to be placed on reduced fossil fuel use through energy conservation. A major commitment is being made to expanding local food production and processing. A high priority is to be placed on protection of the vulnerable and marginalized populations.
It has long been said that in most trends Canada lags behind the United States by around 20 years. That appears to be the case when it comes to city planning and urban design. But we cannot afford to take 20 years to start seriously dealing with Peak Oil and climate change.
John W. Warnock is a Regina political economist, author and green activist.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 01 August 2008 )
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