PIPELINE DEFEAT ‘A CRISIS’ CLARE CLANCY
Notley demands Trudeau appeal to Supreme Court, recall Parliament
Within hours of a bombshell court ruling that cast doubt on the future of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Premier Rachel Notley said Alberta will withdraw from the federal climate plan until Ottawa gets its act together and pushes the controversial project ahead.
The move followed a Federal Court of Appeal decision handed down Thursday that quashed the project’s approval, marking a triumph for Indigenous groups and environmentalists who opposed the pipeline expansion.
“Albertans are angry. I am angry,” Notley said in a televised speech several hours after the ruling. “Alberta has done everything right and we have been let down. “It is a crisis.”
The decision to pull out of the pan-Canadian climate change plan doesn’t affect the provincial carbon tax currently in place, she added.
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.
Notley said while her announcement doesn’t have an immediate effect on Ottawa, withdrawing support sends a clear message.
“Without Alberta, that plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”
In its decision Thursday, the Federal Court of Appeal said the National Energy Board’s review was so flawed that Ottawa couldn’t rely on it as a basis for approving the Trans Mountain expansion in 2016. The federal government also failed in its duty to engage in meaningful consultations with First Nations before giving the project a green light, said the written ruling.
That decision means the federal government will have to redo part of its consultations with Indigenous groups.
In response, Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. announced construction-related activities to twin the existing pipeline would be suspended.
“We are facing a very serious situation,” Notley said, noting she spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the phone and laid out her demands.
She wants the federal government to immediately launch an appeal of the court ruling and is asking for improved consultation with Indigenous groups. She is also calling for an emergency session of Parliament to “fix” the National Energy Board process and assert federal authority.
Before Notley’s news conference, United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney slammed the NDP for taking a premature “tone of triumphalism.”
“All of the other delays ... have contributed to a situation where we do not have an inch of pipe in the ground and here we are with the project being suspended,” he told reporters in Calgary. “This is after our premier has been running around the province ... highfiving her colleagues.”
Alberta Party Leader Stephen Mandel said Notley’s government has shown “incredible smugness” around the pipeline project, pointing to a celebratory news conference in May where she praised Ottawa’s plan to purchase the pipeline.
“That just shows the naivety of what really happens in politics and nothing is for sure. You should make sure you have all your ducks in line first,” he said.
SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE SALE TO OTTAWA
The federal government announced it would buy Kinder Morgan’s core Canadian assets for $4.5 billion to take ownership of the existing pipeline. Ottawa also committed to invest an additional $7.4 billion to twin the pipeline to ship oil products from the Edmonton area to Burnaby, B.C.
About 30 minutes after Thursday’s landmark ruling, company shareholders voted more than 99 per cent in favour of the sale.
“The court decision was not a condition of the transaction between KML and the federal government,” said president Ian Anderson in a statement.
Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the government is reviewing the court ruling and will move forward with the sale.
“It was an important milestone today with the shareholder vote,” he said at a Toronto news conference.
Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi, MP for Edmonton Mill Woods, wasn’t available for comment on Thursday and referred media to Morneau.
‘THIS IS A TOUGH MORNING’
Alberta businesses are discouraged by the court decision, said Ken Kobly, president of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce.
“It’s a really frustrating day,” he said.
“It’s probably a very frustrating day for a lot of First Nations who are along the route and were in support of it.
“Development delayed is development denied.”
Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson reiterated his support for the project and said it’s too important to give up.
“This is a tough morning for a lot of businesses and a lot of workers,” he said, calling the news a setback. “I’m eagerly awaiting word from Ottawa and the legislature about what their next steps will be.”
Meanwhile B.C. Premier John Horgan told reporters the court case “has always been about First Nations rights” and congratulated the involved Indigenous groups.
The province, which was an intervener in the case, has repeatedly argued that the pipeline would put the B.C. coast at risk.
Now the issue will no longer be top of mind for British Columbians, Horgan added.
“There’s a whole host of issues that the federal government and our government agree on.
“I’m going to continue to focus on those.”
The court case combined nearly two dozen lawsuits calling for the energy board’s review of Kinder Morgan’s project to be overturned.
First Nations, including the Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish on British Columbia’s south coast, argued the federal government failed to adequately consult them before the energy board review or the cabinet decision to approve the project.
The ruling, written by Justice Eleanor Dawson, suggested new consultations with First Nations could result in a delay.
“But, through possible accommodation the corrected consultation may further the objective of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples,” Dawson wrote.
Construction was scheduled to start this fall with surveying in Alberta and B.C. Now that timeline, and plans to put pipe in the ground in early 2019, has been called into question.
The expansion, which has sparked anti-pipeline protests, pro-pipeline rallies and an Alberta-B.C. standoff in recent months, will nearly triple the line’s capacity to 890,000 barrels per day.
Kinder Morgan had won several court victories, including one last week when the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an application from the City of Burnaby to overturn a lower court decision.
It’s probably a very frustrating day for a lot of First Nations who are along the route and were in support of it.