L'Essentiel with Esther Bégin
Possible Closure of the Line 5 Pipeline - May 10, 2021
The Trudeau government is stepping up efforts to keep Line 5 of the Enbridge pipeline in service. The governor of Michigan has ordered Enbridge to close Line 5 by Wednesday. The line, which crosses the Great Lakes under the Straits of Mackinac, supplies up to 50% of the oil destined for refineries in Quebec and Ontario. Its closure could result in the loss of thousands of jobs in Canada. Opposition parties blame the Trudeau government for not doing enough to resolve this issue. We debate it with MPs Peter Julian (NDP), Marc Serré (LIB), Gérard Deltell (CPC) and Mario Simard (BQ). Agathe Demarais, director of global forecasts for The Economist Intelligence Unit, discusses herd immunity in Canada which could be achieved only in 2022, she said. She also discusses the speed of deconfinement in Europe, the devastation of the pandemic in India and the impact on global herd immunity and the responsibility of rich countries in distributing COVID-19 vaccines to underprivileged countries. Political scientists Geneviève Tellier and Daniel Béland analyze the possibility and political risks of holding a federal election in the midst of a pandemic, as well as the Trudeau government's response to the Michigan governor's threat to close the Line 5 pipeline.
