Tad naive to complain that Kinder Morgan's $1bn fee to BC Gov't set a terrible precedent. Canadian politics is rife with these shakedown payments. In Ontario, the provincial Planning Act's Section 37 stipulates that real estate developers pay arbitrary funds into a discretionary pool controlled by the local councillor . . the negotiation of the amount and use of these Section 37 funds "buys" a councillor's support, generally to override the municipal city plan, that permits a huge new development to proceed, to the chief planner's and residents' eternal frustration. The fact that big shakedowns now happen for resource developments comes as no surprise . . .  Canadians don't live in the squeaky clean world we pretend to, its a banana republic out there.