Battle lines drawn in B.C.

Clark backs Trans Mountain, foes isolated

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark could have been the last holdout on the Trans Mountain pipeline. Instead she stood behind the expansion of the project Wednesday, ignoring the rage that erupted in her province in the aftermath of Tuesday’s approval and demonstrating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is building a strong coalition to untangle Canada’s oil pipeline gridlock.

With Alberta’s Premier, Rachel Notley, championing the Kinder Morgan project, and American president-elect Donald Trump working behind the scenes to resurrect Keystone XL, opponents are finding themselves increasingly isolated from governments on both sides of the Canada/United States border.

For more than four years, pipeline opponents could count on Clark. The feisty premier was a thorn in the side of the Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain expansion projects to carry bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast, insisting that five conditions be met before allowing their construction.

But a day after Trudeau approved Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion, Clark took the mature approach and said she was pleased that those conditions have either been met, or are close to being met.

She said there is still work to do on the $1.5-billion marine spill response plan recently announced by Trudeau and to ensure British Columbians get a fair share of the benefits and jobs, but work on three other conditions — regulatory approvals, land spill response and indigenous participation — has been completed.

“When I spoke to the Prime Minister yesterday, I told him that I look forward to him coming to British Columbia, to share his thinking behind the decision that he and his cabinet have made,” Clark told reporters. He needs to “talk to the people here about why he believes this project is indeed in the national interest.