Pipeline to intensify opposition, says NDP

South Okanagan MP says Canada stuck with leaky pipeline

Richard Cannings can do little but shake his head at the federal Liberal government’s plans to purchase the Trans Canada pipeline – and the MP for South Okanagan-Kootenay says his constituents are doing the same.

“Obviously, it’s all negative, which isn’t surprising,” Cannings said of constituent reaction.

“Of all the options I thought (the Liberals) had at their disposal, this was the most extreme and the last one I would have picked.”

Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Tuesday the Liberal government plans to spend $4.5 billion to buy the 1,150-kilometre pipeline, its rights and assets.

Kinder Morgan paid $550 million to acquire those same assets in 2007.

In 2013, Kinder Morgan filed an application to build a second pipeline to run roughly parallel to the existing pipeline, between Edmonton and Burnaby, to be used to transport diluted bitumen.

The government, Morneau said, would set up a Crown corporation and hire the Canadian management team associated with the planned twinning to get that work done. It would also, with Kinder Morgan’s help, look for another private sector buyer to take over.

“I was disappointed on so many levels,” said Cannings.

“First of all, I don’t think it’s going to accomplish anything. That’s the real disappointment for all Canadians: we’re going to spend $4.5 billion not to build a pipeline but to buy an old pipeline — a 65-year-old leaky pipeline.

“(And) we’re going to have to spend a minimum of $7 billion more to build a new one. And there’s no guarantee that it will be built.”

Kinder Morgan’s 2013 application and the subsequent approval process has brought voracious opposition, especially from coastal First Nations and many B.C. residents who fear, among other things, a spill from one of the supertankers expected to move the delivered bitumen to Asian markets.

“None of that is going to change with the federal government’s purchase,” said Cannings. “It may, in fact intensify the opposition.”

The South Okanagan-Kootenay MP fears the purchase could happen without a vote — or even debate — in the House of Commons. He’s also uncertain about prospects to unload the pipeline on the private sector.

“They say they’re going to sell it back to a private sector, but I don’t know who is going to buy it. If the proponent didn’t think it was worth continuing, why would anybody else want to buy it?

“Especially at that price.”