Trudeau gov’t holding emergency cabinet meeting to try to salvage Trans Mountain project
Posted April 10, 2018 10:46 am.
Last Updated April 10, 2018 10:49 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – The Trudeau government is holding an emergency cabinet meeting today, as it looks at its options to ensure the Trans Mountain pipeline is built.
Kinder Morgan has suspended non-essential work on the project, in the face of opposition and threats of delay from the BC government.
We’re in the middle of a two-week break of Parliament, but cabinet ministers are flying in to deal with this dispute, which has pitted a province against the feds, and put at risk a major energy project.
The prime minister has vowed to get the pipeline built. Duane Bratt, a political scientist with Mount Royal University tells me to do that, cabinet ministers will likely be discussing two different options: A carrot and a stick.
The carrot may be to Kinder Morgan and a possible federal investment in the project to keep it afloat.
“Joining with the Alberta government and investing money into the pipeline and taking some of the risks away from Kinder Morgan,” explains Bratt.
The stick may be used on the BC government, which could see provincial transfers scaled back unless it drops its opposition.
“Basically withhold, for awhile, some really big cheques in the tunes of hundreds of millions — possibly billions of dollars,” says Bratt.
He tells us either way, this showdown is a disaster for the feds and the best they can do now is mitigate the damage.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley promised legislation this week that would, once passed, give Alberta the ability to reduce domestic oil supplies into BC. Such a move would cause already high gas prices in BC to spike, ramping up the pressure from pipeline proponents on the province to back down.
BC Premier John Horgan, heading a minority NDP government that clings to power only with the support of three Green party members under an agreement to fight the pipeline, has so far shown no sign of giving in.
The pipeline is within federal jurisdiction, but Horgan is trying to use provincial powers to limit how much oil – ultimately destined for export markets overseas – can flow through it, effectively killing any reason for expansion.
The expansion project is meant to triple the capacity of the pipeline that already runs between Edmonton and Burnaby. Opponents to the project in BC say the pipeline can’t go ahead if Canada is to meet its climate change targets, and also fear the expanded risk of oil spills and heightened oil tanker traffic off the coast of BC.
Kinder Morgan says it will decide the future of the project by May 31.
