A second convoy this week supporting Alberta’s oil and gas industry is set to hit the roads on Saturday in Medicine Hat.
“We’re trying to appeal to the provincial government and the federal government… ‘Listen, we need help. We need pipelines and we need to have our oil and gas move,’” said Jerry Sabine, organizer of the convoy and owner of CO2 Logistics.
Truckers from southern Alberta are preparing to rally against bills C-48 and C-69, which Sabine says have damaging effects on the oil and gas sectors as well as Alberta’s overall economy. He said getting oil out to foreign markets is nearly impossible without pipelines in Alberta.
“The process of the pipelines is so slow that… we’re handcuffed here in Alberta,” Sabine said.
“The jobs are fading away along with the way of living that we have here in Alberta.”
A similar event was held in Nisku, just outside of Edmonton, on Wednesday, where roughly 1,200 truckers slowly convoyed throughout the area during a pro-pipeline rally.
Traffic was also brought to a standstill in areas of Edmonton as some truckers continued their protest by travelling along the QEII.
Organizers of the Medicine Hat event say similar plans are in place for Saturday’s protest.
“We’re going to slowly proceed down the number one highway,” said Sabine, “to let people know how slow it is in the oil field and give them some sort of urgency and let them know: ‘Hey, $1.6 billion that Ottawa has allocated to Alberta is the wrong way.’
“We don’t need loans; we need jobs and we need pipelines.”
READ MORE: Alberta critical of Ottawa’s $1.6B package for ailing energy sector
The convoy is set to travel east on the Trans Canada Highway, beginning at Highway 534 and going through the city of Medicine Hat to the Dunmore Weigh Scale.
Organizers say it will be a peaceful protest that obeys all traffic laws while in progress.
Sabine hopes the upcoming rally will attract residents from all walks of life to join their cause, saying bills passed to squash production of pipelines will be a repeat of the fall of industries vital to Alberta and Canada.
“In 1982, the National Energy Program that Trudeau’s father brought in was devastating to Alberta. You know, this is going to do the same thing devastation wise,” Sabine said.
“So this is going to be for all the oil and gas people and anybody that’s affected by oil and gas is also welcome to show up at the rally because it affects much more than people that work in the fields; it affects store owners and the whole general public, of this area anyways.”
READ MORE: Western Canadian grassroots group plans ‘Convoy to Ottawa’ to push pipelines
Organizers hope this rally, in conjunction with others, will force the federal government to listen to the voices of suffering Albertans. Sabine says the process of getting oil out to foreign markets continues to plague not only his own business but workers across the province.
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