Groups slam Notley for exiting climate plan

EDMONTON Environmental groups are chastising the Alberta NDP for pulling out of the pan-Canadian climate change plan in the aftermath of a massive blow to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

“It’s obviously very disappointing and frankly a bit puzzling,” said Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence.

On Thursday, the Federal Court of Appeal handed down a stunning decision that quashed the project’s approval, marking a victory for Indigenous groups and environmentalists who opposed the expansion. The ruling found the National Energy Board’s review was flawed and the government failed to properly consult First Nations.

The court directed the federal government to redo part of its consultations with Indigenous groups.

“(The court) makes its decision based on the evidence,” Gray said in an interview Friday. “They’re not going to bow to political pressure or posturing.”

Ottawa may have to impose a carbon price on Alberta if the province doesn’t keep lockstep with the federal plan, he said.

“It feels like a bit of petulance on the premier’s part.”

Alberta’s carbon tax, which is part of the province’s climate leadership plan, remains in place.

When it was introduced last year, the carbon tax was pegged at $20 per tonne. That rose to $30 per tonne on Jan. 1. Ottawa’s national plan would increase the tax to $50 per tonne by 2022.

Premier Rachel Notley told reporters Thursday that “without Alberta, that plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

“I thought it was a reckless and a bit of a childish move … which may help destabilize much-needed action on climate change,” said Greenpeace Canada climate organizer Mike Hudema Friday.

“Premier Notley ’s move is pushing us backwards and that’s very dangerous in the times in which we are living.” He said he had “a lot of hope” when the NDP first took office in 2015.

“Since then I think she’s really been captured by the oil industry and has pinned all our hopes on a pipeline that is never going to get built,” Hudema said. “This pipeline is not in Canada’s best interest. It violates its commitments to climate change that the prime minister made in Paris, it violates the commitment we made to Indigenous people.”

Ottawa committed to purchasing Kinder Morgan’s core Canadian assets for $4.5 billion, and plans to twin the pipeline to ship oil products from the Edmonton area to Burnaby, B.C. at a cost of $7.4 billion.

On the heels of Thursday ’s court decision, the company announced construction-related activities to twin the existing pipeline would be suspended.

Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi said Friday that the ruling showed the need for more environmental protections, not less.

It feels like a bit of petulance on the premier’s part.