Wayne Long promised climate action. Why is he supporting fracking?

Saint John-Kennebecasis MP Wayne Long surprised some when he made statements in support of fracking in New Brunswick last week. The youth who supported him because of his climate action promises during the 2021 election must feel particularly betrayed. On Sept. 2, he told the Telegraph-Journal: “We need to frack.”

The Liberal MP told the Telegraph-Journal that he has always been pro-fracking and pro-gas extraction. It is true. Long has been supportive of fossil fuel projects like the dead in the water Energy East pipeline that thankfully never came to fruition.

Long cannot support climate action while being a cheerleader for dinosaur projects like oil and gas pipelines, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and fracking for shale gas. A 2024 Cornell University study found that LNG leaves a greenhouse gas footprint that is 33 per cent worse than coal.

Melissa Young who ran against Long for the Conservative Party of Canada in this year’s election pointed out Long’s contradictions on energy projects and climate action. Taking to Instagram, the pipeline proponent pointed out Long had once voted against pipeline construction: “What he doesn’t tell you is. He voted in favour of Bill C-69, the law that outlaws new pipeline construction. Now Mark Carney admits he won’t repeal Bill C-69.”

Long’s comments come as New Brunswickers struggle with one of the driest summers on record, wildfires burning near their homes, and crop failures due to water shortages. This summer has the outdoors tasting like smoke. We were banned from the woods because of extreme wildfire risk. This is likely going to be the norm going forward with us not meeting the global COP 21 target of keeping global average temperature from increasing above 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Long is promoting more fossil fuels as scientists at Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany have called attention to the potential collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation after the year 2100. They say, “The shutdown would cut the ocean’s northward heat supply, causing summer drying and severe winter extremes in northwestern Europe and shifts in tropical rainfall belts.” The scientists recommend making urgent deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions to avoid catastrophic impacts.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick Minister of Natural Resources John Herron is supporting increased LNG export capacity, with the help of Repsol and TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), to Europe.

Long and Carney, and Herron and Holt are telling us to stay on the fossil fuels train and forget about any commitment we have as treaty people or to Indigenous reconciliation.

The Irving Oil Refinery and other industries that operate in Long’s riding have a friend in Carney, perhaps more than Trudeau. Carney has appointed Dawn Farrell, former CEO and chair of the board of directors of the Trans Mountain Corporation, a pipeline company, to lead the government’s new major projects office. The revolving door of industry and government remains.

Fossil fuel and mining projects that have been shelved are being brought back to life with government investment.

Todd McDonald of Energy Atlantica, a Halifax-based energy trading company that buys and sells natural gas between Atlantic Canada, Ontario and the northeastern U.S., told the Telegraph-Journal that new fossil fuel projects “doesn’t get built without massive government subsidies that de-risk it.”

For McDonald, the best way to develop the region’s natural resources without taxpayer support is to “provide a royalty payment to the landowners and to our First Nations and our Indigenous populations, because then they have an incentive that goes with their risk.”

It was just over a decade ago that people in New Brunswick said no to fracking for shale gas because of the risks. The pro-fracking government of David Alward’s Conservatives was turfed in the 2014 New Brunswick election in favour of Brian Gallant’s Liberals that promised a shale gas moratorium. The science produced since then still says that any reward from fracking is not worth the risk.

Last year, doctors in New Brunswick pointed to the growing body of medical evidence that associates fracking to adverse health outcomes, including birth defects, low birth weight, childhood cancers, asthma, heart disease, and a higher risk of mortality.

What we need

More than a decade ago, Elsipogtog First Nation became a focal point in the resistance to fracking for shale gas and the Idle No More Movement. The RCMP’s violent attacks on Mi’kmaq land defenders and allies against fracking made international news and became the subject of many documentaries, prompting solidarity with Elsipogtog across Canada.

What we need are governments that respect our Peace and Friendship Treaties and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Any development on Wabanaki territory must have the free, prior and informed consent of the Wolastoqiyik, Peskotomuhkati, Mi’kmaq and Penobscot people.

What we have instead is a federal government, through Bill C-5, and provincial governments, including New Brunswick, pushing fossil fuel and mining projects like the controversial Sisson tungsten mine in a time of climate change. As they delay climate action and ignore inherent Indigenous rights, they will be met with resistance.

We don’t need fracking.

Lynaya Astephen is a Saint John-based social justice activist.

With files from Tracy Glynn.