Premier, Horgan disagree on pipeline but remain hopeful
Premier Rachel Notley says she’s now spoken to incoming British Columbia premier John Horgan, but the conversation didn’t break the ice around pipelines.
Notley and Horgan are old friends and New Democrat colleagues, but the B.C. NDP’s deal to form a government in co-operation with the Greens includes a pledge to try to stop the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline.
The two leaders didn’t speak during the political wrangling following a B.C. election that delivered no party a majority.
But Notley said Monday the pair had a “good conversation” June 30, a day after Horgan was asked to take office following the defeat of the B.C. Liberal government on a confidence motion in the B.C. legislature.
One item that came up was the pipeline impasse, she acknowledged to reporters at the premier’s annual Stampede breakfast at McDougall Centre.
“We talked about a number of different issues and certainly we touched on the fact that is an issue we don’t agree on,” said Notley.
“But I also feel very confident that there’s value in continuing those conversations, so we will.”
Asked about a potential compromise around pipelines, Notley noted that Horgan hasn’t yet been sworn in as premier.
“Those conversations are very worth having and, at this point, they are conversations that I think are best had between the premier and I ... and we’ll see where they go,” she said.
“For the time being, my view is that we need to do everything we can to ... find a path to a win-win.”
Notley and Horgan won’t have a chance to hold further talks at next week’s Council of the Federation meeting in Edmonton. Horgan won’t attend because he and his cabinet will be sworn in July 18.
The timing allows him to sidestep tough questions and a potentially awkward meeting with Notley on her home turf, though B.C. NDP MLA Carole James insisted last week that the swearing-in was not scheduled for that reason.
Notley’s office said it had nothing further to share about potential meetings between Horgan and Notley or on the possibility of the Alberta premier travelling again to B.C. to sell the merits of the pipeline, as she did prior to the B.C. election.
Kinder Morgan’s $7.4-billion expansion has received approval from the federal cabinet and Notley insists the B.C. government has no ability to stop the project.
Alberta sees the expansion of the pipeline that runs to the port of Vancouver as crucial to opening new Asian markets for the province’s oilsands crude and getting a better price for provincial resources.
But the project continues to face significant environmental and First Nations opposition in B.C. The incoming NDP government has not outlined its strategy to try to block the pipeline but issues of First Nations jurisdiction are expected to play a significant role.
The Trudeau government has said repeatedly that it continues to support the Kinder Morgan project as being in the national interest.
Federal Employment Minister Patty Hajdu reiterated that sentiment Monday as she touted pipeline approvals as a key measure Ottawa is taking to help bolster Alberta’s economy, which is emerging from two years of recession spurred by low oil prices.
“We know that oil is a big part of solving the problem for Alberta,” Hajdu told reporters at the premier’s breakfast.
“We can see that challenge when we’ve got either slumps in prices or problems with projects going through. We knew we had to build up the economy of Alberta by getting those pipeline approvals through.”
But federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer suggested on the weekend that Alberta should be leery of losing Trudeau’s support for Trans Mountain because the prime minister had rejected Enbridge’s Northern Gateway line.
Scheer did not provide specifics when asked by a reporter how a Conservative government would deal with a province trying to block a federally approved pipeline project.
“I think there are tools available, that the jurisdictional issues are clean. It’s a matter of political will. And that’s where I’m not confident because we’ve seen the prime minister cave to political pressure,” Scheer said Saturday at the Conservatives’ Stampede barbecue.