Officials going to Ottawa over B.C. pipeline dispute
Alberta plans to align its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion legal efforts with those of the federal government, and provincial officials are heading to Ottawa this week to figure out how that can happen.
The province’s market access task force held its second meeting Monday in Edmonton.
It talked about possible retaliatory measures against British Columbia, how to win the hearts and minds of Canadians on the pipeline issue, and Alberta’s legal strategy.
Premier Rachel Notley said after the meeting Alberta will jump into the court battle against Burnaby, in which the National Energy Board contends the municipality is overstepping its jurisdiction by denying work permits for the pipeline expansion.
Notley said a large part of the task force’s discussion centred on the ramifications for Canada if B.C. continues to stand in the way of the pipeline expansion.
Talk of an escalating trade war with the United States is pointing to an uncertain world economy, Notley said.
“As Canadians, it is our economic unity that is the enormous source of our strength, and we should not forget that. We are not 10 individual economic fiefdoms fighting for advantage over one another,” she said.
The premier said British Columbia can “have at ’er” and ask the courts whether it has the right to limit what goes through pipelines, but it must understand it’s playing a very dangerous game that could hurt the economy and the country.
Notley is convinced the courts won’t give B.C. the go-ahead to make rules about pipeline shipments.
But if they do, and the province stops Alberta from shipping oil through pipelines, “B.C. would trigger an internal Canadian trade war that would make what’s going on with the U.S. today look like a tea party,” Notley said.