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Re-Engineering Canada By Max Chernetsov, P.Eng., and Brian Dowse, P.Eng.
The writers see the CUC as “a series of interconnecting land corridors” under the control of the federal government. Reaching tidewater in the east, west, and even the north, the CUC would “allow access and free flow of all products, so that all of Canada could benefit from the abundance that exists.” The CCT, meanwhile, would be a territory of perhaps 2,000 square kilometres, spanning the Ottawa River and encompassing Hull and the current Ottawa. Mr. Chernetsov and Mr. Dowse write that the Government of Canada “should give its citizens a dynamic belated 150th birthday present” by dedicating the country to a project like the one they outline. “The end purpose of these proposed radical changes to Canada would be to eliminate the fiefdom mentality inherited from past European colonial times in North America, reduce the cost of government, increase exports, and more equitably distribute the natural resources of Canada. . .” The APEGA members with this grand vision are civil engineers and immigrants to Canada. Between them they have practised more than 65 years of in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. Most of their experience is Canadian, working on a wide variety of projects from Newfoundland to British Columbia to the Canadian Arctic. Mr. Chernetsov is president of SEEDA Inc., a consulting company that positions itself as providing “imaginative planning, engineering, and environmental services.” Mr. Dowse is a retired consulting engineer who mentors professionals working on SEEDA projects. It is on the SEEDA site that Re-engineering Canada is posted, but the writing partners would love to see it linked or posted elsewhere. They concede that the project they propose is massive and challenge-filled. Indeed, it involves the kind of planning, consultation, and rejigging of national interests that suggests a well-worn simile: it’s like turning a tanker around in the St. Lawrence Seaway. That aside, as APEGA nears 2020, our association’s centennial year, it also reminds us that our members will likely have plenty of big ideas and grand solutions for the next 100 years of professional engineering and geoscience in Alberta. Or in some unnamed region of the future.
A PROPOSAL TO CHANGE THE COURSE OF A NATION The reasons behind an impasse on the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline are many, varied, and conflicting. If you accept the words of pundits and politicians across the country, the impasse is because of the unconstitutional intransigence of B.C.’s premier. Or it’s because of a flawed consultation and approval process that fails to hear the voices of all stakeholders. It’s because of grave environmental risks to B.C. It’s because of unreasonable, misinformed, and out-of-touch protestors. It’s because of unreasonable, misinformed, and out-of- touch institutions and business interests. But wait. There’s more. It’s because of a need to address climate change and build the market-share of sustainable energy solutions. It’s because of a misunderstanding of demand and societal need for oil and its products. Take your pick. To Max Chernetsov, P.Eng., and Brian Dowse, P.Eng., much of the above is noise. The pipeline debate, they say in a paper called Re-Engineering Canada , is a symptom rather than a cause. The Calgary writers clearly sit in a camp that favours proceeding with the pipeline. But their view is more forward-looking and foundational than calling for the completion of any single project. File this one under #bigideas. Canada needs to change an archaic structure founded on a “fiefdom mentality,” they say. We’re crippled by short-term political decisions in a country that needs at least a 50-year view. Our national vision and leadership are failing us, but we can repair ourselves with reform, good planning, a redrawing of the map of Canada, and the creation of two new divisions: the Canadian Capital Territory (CCT) and the Canadian Utilities Corridor (CUC). Wave good-bye to provinces and the existing territories, along with their, well, provincial perspectives. Say hello to six new regions.
54 | PEG SUMMER 2018
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