‘They can’t mess with Alberta,’ Notley warns
As Kinder Morgan halts pipeline work over B.C.’s stance, premier vows to buy in
The Alberta government is prepared to buy a stake of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to ensure it gets built, Premier Rachel Notley said Sunday.
In a rare show of being on the same page, United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney agrees.
The $7.4-billion Kinder Morgan project may be scrapped entirely unless agreements can be reached by May 31 to resolve uncertainty created by British Columbia government opposition to the project, the company announced Sunday.
In a news release, Kinder Morgan said without an agreement in place, “it is difficult to conceive of any scenario in which we would proceed with the project.”
Notley came out swinging late Sunday afternoon, her comments aimed squarely at B.C. Premier John Horgan.
It wasn’t wrath — she’s not even angry, she said, just calmly trying to get on with the job at hand — but it was a direct message.
Horgan may think he can harass the project without economic consequences for his province, Notley said, “but he is wrong.”
Her government will introduce legislation to turn off the taps to B.C. in the coming days, she said, giving Alberta the power to impose serious economic consequences on the province should it continue on its present course.
And if Horgan thinks he can mess with the project via legal means, Notley says, he’s wrong again.
“Let me be absolutely clear — they cannot mess with Alberta,” she said, adding her government is prepared to invest public money in the pipeline project.
“If we take that step, we will be a significantly more determined investor than British Columbia has dealt with up to this point,” Notley warned.
“Never count Alberta out. This pipeline will be built.”
NON-ESSENTIAL PIPELINE SPENDING HALTED
For now, the company said all non-essential spending on the expansion project has been suspended to protect shareholder interests while consultations are held to provide clarity on the firm’s ability to construct through British Columbia.
The company needs to protect its value, chairman and chief executive Steve Kean said, rather than risk billions of dollars on an outcome outside of its control.
“A company cannot resolve differences between governments. While we have succeeded in all legal challenges to date, a company cannot litigate its way to an in-service pipeline amidst jurisdictional differences between governments,” the release said.
Kinder Morgan’s move is the latest development in political and legal wrangling over the Trans Mountain project, which was approved in 2016 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Notley and Kenney both want Trudeau to step up and take concrete actions to support the pipeline, echoing sentiments they have thrown at Ottawa for months.
“We are calling on the federal government to work in the defence of Alberta and working people in Western Canada in the way they have in the past for other parts of this country,” Notley said Sunday, pointing to the assistance Ottawa provided Ontario during the auto crisis, and to Quebec when aerospace needed a bailout.
“Federal approval of a project must we worth more than the paper it’s written on.”
Kenney called Sunday’s development “frustrating and predictable.”
The federal government approved the Trans Mountain project using its constitutional authority, he said, but that government has “stood by passively uttering meaningless bromides for the past nine months.”
“Now is the time for federal action. It is time for the federal government to act like a federal government, for our prime minister
We will be a significantly more determined investor than British Columbia has dealt with up to this point. Never count Alberta out. This pipeline will be built.
to lead like a prime minister should — in the national interest,” Kenney said.
As for buying into the pipeline expansion, Kenney is on board if Ottawa also comes to the table.
“I am philosophically opposed to corporate welfare, but when there is a major market failure ... there is a compelling case for the state to come forward, using its credit, its financial leverage, to ensure economic progress. I believe this is such an instance,” he said.
HORGAN DENIES PROJECT HARASSMENT
Trudeau said during a recent trip to Fort McMurray that the pipeline would get built. On Sunday, federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr issued a statement saying the project is in Canada’s national interests.
Carr also called on Horgan to end all threats of delay to the Trans Mountain expansion.
“His government’s actions stand to harm the entire Canadian economy,” Carr stated.
“Our government stands behind this project and has the jurisdiction in this matter.”
Although the project has the support of the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments, Horgan — who took power last spring with backing from the province’s Green party — has vowed to use every tool at his disposal to block it.
At a news conference Sunday, Horgan said the interests of Texas boardrooms are not the interests of British Columbians.
He denied his government has been harassing the project, adding he has told Trudeau that he doesn’t think the pipeline expansion is in the national interest.
“It’s been said we are somehow compromising the climate action plan for the country and I profoundly disagree with that,” Horgan said.
“I reject the notion that somehow our opposition to risk to our coast and our economy is somehow tied to the national climate plan.” He also dismissed any suggestion that his government’s position could lead to a constitutional crisis.
But the stance of Horgan’s government has helped to create “unquantifiable risk,” Kinder Morgan said in its statement Sunday, and it’s unclear if some of the province’s obstructive actions can succeed.
“Unfortunately B.C. has now been asserting broad jurisdiction and reiterating its intention to use that jurisdiction to stop the project,” the company said.
“B.C.’s intention in that regard has been neither validated nor quashed, and the province has continued to threaten unspecified additional actions to prevent project success.”