Freeze B.C. funding to force compliance: Kenney
EDMONTON If Ottawa was really serious about supporting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, it would freeze all discretionary funding to B.C., says Alberta Opposition Leader Jason Kenney, criticizing the results of a tri-party meeting Sunday.
“They have to see that there are consequences,” Kenney said, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new legislation is coming to reassert federal jurisdiction over the pipeline.
After meeting Sunday with premiers Rachel Notley and John Horgan, Trudeau also said Ottawa will financially backstop the project with Alberta, if necessary; federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau will enter negotiations with pipeline owner Kinder Morgan.
Kenney warned new federal legislation can be challenged in court.
“It doesn’t get us any further to certainty,” he said, and the options of appealing to the Supreme Court or buying into the project should be the last resort.
Withholding funds is the best way to make a point, he said.
“If the federal government was serious about this, the simplest thing would have been two weeks ago, to pick up the phone and say, ‘You know that meeting we scheduled to sign the ($4.1 billion) in infrastructure funds? That’s on indefinite hold,’” said Kenney, referring to a 10-year funding announcement for transit and green infrastructure.
“Those are totally discretionary federal funds. … It just looks to me like they’re not really serious.”
Notley said Alberta and Ottawa will work together to “eliminate” investor risk, saying progress is being made to ensure the pipeline will go forward.
At the legislature Sunday, Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel said Ottawa already has jurisdiction. It needs to act, going to court where necessary to get injunctions and ensure the municipal and provincial permits are granted.
Kenney’s plan won’t work any better than Notley’s threat to cut off oil supplies to B.C. and drive up the cost of gasoline in Vancouver, Mandel said.
“Sure we can get tough, but it’s just so senseless,” he said. “It’s just going to stiffen the back of Horgan. … Negotiations have to be done in a thoughtful, creative way.”
Kinder Morgan officials declined to comment Sunday, but the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said it was happy.
The coming legislation will “clear up any uncertainty,” said CAPP president Tim McMillan, adding both the financial commitment and legislative action are important. It is the political wrangling that threatens the financial viability of the pipeline, he said, and it’s “too important to Canada to fail.”