In an article from Le Journal de Montréal, physics professor Normand Mousseau is billed as an energy expert where he makes the claim that the proposed new pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast will weaken Quebec and cost Quebecers billions of dollars.

Apparently, the physics department at Université de Montréal didn’t get the memo that Quebec received $14 billion in equalization from funds generated by economic activity in Western provinces just this year alone.

The continued nationalization of Canadian pipelines is certainly cause for concern, but the prime recipient of transfers from the revenues generated by such projects really shouldn’t be complaining. Any costs incurred through the federal funding of the project will be far outweighed by the massive transfer of funds that continue to be diverted to Quebec. Assuming the pipeline is constructed, it will only increase the interprovincial welfare that La Belle Province is so dependent upon.

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The piece then quotes Greenpeace activist turned Bloc Québécois MP Patrick Bonin who expressed disappointment in the pipeline. Apparently Guilbeault was unavailable for comment. Greenpeace activists tend to be as economically acute as physics professors.

Pascal Paradis of the Parti Québécois claimed the new pipeline will indebt Quebec by billions of dollars.

The lineup of self-styled energy and economic experts overlook the hundreds of billons of dollars in economic activity Western Canada’s oil and gas sector generates. Of that, tens of billions of dollars are generated in tax revenues at all levels of government, much of which ends up in the pockets of Quebecers through federal transfers every year.

Until Quebecers are willing to wean themselves from the billions of dollars they enjoy through the fruits of Western Canadian investment and labour, they would be well served not to complain about how the wealth is generated.

Perhaps if the transfers were invested in teaching more courses in basic economics, more of the leadership in Quebec would have an understanding of what and who pays their bills.