Trudeau’s balancing act to play out on western tour
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking his government’s balancing act between the economy and the environment on a western Canadian road show this week.
However, the precariousness of his position between environmental groups, who want no more fossil fuel development, and the oil industry, which is a big driver of the Canadian economy, will be highlighted on the trip.
Several hundred Trans Mountain pipeline protesters plan to give him a less-than-warm welcome in Vancouver Thursday night.
Then on Friday, Trudeau is to visit Alberta’s oilsands to tour a Suncor facility, a company whose CEO complained two months ago that Canada’s regulatory regime and uncompetitive tax structure would keep his company from investing any further in this country.
The pipeline was approved by the Trudeau government in 2016, but protesters say it will raise the risk of oil spills in the Burrard Inlet and can’t be completed if the government is to meet its climate change commitments to cut Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions another 200 million tonnes a year by 2030.
Furor over the pipeline has ramped up in recent weeks, with around 200 people arrested near Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby, B.C., marine terminal in the last month;
Trudeau’s western trip starts with a stop in Victoria on Thursday for an announcement on marine safety and oil spill prevention.
He has a clean tech industry roundtable in Vancouver later in the day, followed by a $1,000-a-plate Liberal party fundraiser in the evening. It’s there that pipeline protesters plan to show up, banging pots and pans with wooden spoons to make as much noise as possible.
“Our warning to the prime minister and to his wealthy donors is that building this pipeline is going to cost him in the next election,” said Jolan Bailey, a climate campaigner with Leadnow.
On this trip Trudeau won’t be sitting down with B.C. Premier John Horgan, whose government opposes the pipeline and has tried to put stumbling blocks in the way of construction. Trudeau is then set to fly to Fort McMurray for a tour of Suncor’s new oilsands facility there, and a meeting with oil company executives.
The oil industry has been critical of the government for putting regulatory barriers to more development. Trans Canada Corp. last year blamed the demise of the proposed Energy East pipeline project on the government changing the rules for pipeline approvals.