Activist agenda chilling investment community

Horgan’s power play raised concern for the only remaining Canadian pipeline still in progress — and for the future oftheCanadianeconomy.

“I see this as close to a constitutional crisis,” said Robert Peabody, president and CEO of Husky Energy Inc. “The question is ‘how does this country work?’ Are provinces free to stop free economic movement of goods and services across the country? If Canadagoesdownthatroute it’s a very disturbing route for it to go down as a country,” Peabody said on the sidelines of his company’s annual meeting in Calgary.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said “the whole economy would grind to a halt” if the B.C. court rules the province has the authority to regulate the flow of oil from the pipeline expansion.

The court case is discriminatory and redundant, said the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

“What Premier John Horgan and his government are doing is a sham,” said CAPP president and CEO Tim McMillan. “They are not acting in the best interests of Canadians, or British Columbians, but instead advancing their own political agenda.”

The B.C. Government’s activist-driven agenda against Kinder Morgan is sending chills through the investment community across Canada and beyond, warned Chris Gardner, president of the Independent Contractors and Business Association.

The court is expected to take longer to issue a decision than the May 31 deadline imposed by Kinder Morgan to resolve the jurisdictional impasse, said B.C. Attorney General David Eby.

The reference case wouldn’tevenbetheendof it. Horgan said his government could appeal.

You’d never know from the fighting language used by the B.C. premier that the pipeline has been safely transporting oil through the province for more than 60 years.

Or, as pointed out by the federal environment minister McKenna in a letter Thursday to B.C. environment Minister George Heyman, that Canada already has a mountain of regulation to ensure a world-leading regime to transport oil and products, including: the Railway Safety Act, the Pipeline Safety Act, the National Energy Board Act, the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, the Marine Liability Act, the Fisheries Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, and that Ottawa has pledged to spend an additional $1.5 billion to protect its coasts and marine environment.

So far, the only catastropherelatedtoaB.C.pipeline is Horgan’s handling of the Trans Mountain expansion.