According to an Angus Reid Institute poll, half of people in Ontario and Michigan want the embattled Enbridge Line 5 to stay open.
Canada’s energy independence is in the spotlight again, with a key energy artery in the crosshairs of a transborder dispute, as the Line 5 pipeline – which supplies Ontario and Quebec – is under threat of closure from the governor of Michigan, where the pipeline runs through an environmentally sensitive waterway.
Half of respondents in Michigan (48 per cent) and Ontario (49 per cent) want the embattled pipeline to stay open, while a quarter in Michigan and nearly three-in-10 in Ontario want it shut down. In Quebec, the 72 per cent who have an opinion are split on what the pipeline’s fate should be.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a shutdown order for the pipeline in May over concerns of a potential spill into the Straits of Mackinac, where the pipeline runs underwater. Nearly all of those who oppose the pipeline in Michigan (95 per cent) are concerned about a potential leak from Line 5.
The potential economic impacts, both regionally and personally, are a key concern for those who want the pipeline to stay open. A majority of the pipeline’s supporters in Michigan (65 per cent), Ontario (65 per cent), and Quebec (55 per cent) believe they will be personally impacted either “significantly” or “massively” if Line 5 shuts down.
The dispute over Line 5 also appears to have revived support for a west-to-east Canadian pipeline. Three quarters of Ontarians (76 per cent), and three-in-five Quebecers (58 per cent), believe TransCanada’s long-since-cancelled Energy East project should be reconsidered if Michigan turns off the tap on Line 5.
To view the entire poll, click here.
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