Province not yet looking at investing in pipeline

Premier Scott Moe says the province has not yet had a conversation about taking an equity stake in Kinder Morgan’s suspended Trans Mountain pipeline project.

On Sunday, Kinder Morgan said it was cancelling plans to nearly triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline unless legal and jurisdictional challenges were solved by May 31. Non-essential spending on the project has stopped.

Alberta is pledging financial support for the struggling pipeline expansion, with Premier Rachel Notley saying her province would outright buy the project from the Houston-based Kinder Morgan to get it built.

“We are considering a number of financial options to ensure that the Trans Mountain expansion is built, up to and including purchasing the pipeline outright if it was to come to that,” Notley said in a statement provided to Reuters.

The federal government also signalled this week it would look at financial options to ensure expansion of the pipeline continues, including taking a stake in it.

But federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau said talking about such options in public would not be something Ottawa does because “public threats are not helpful.”

Trans Mountain runs from Alberta to British Columbia’s coast. The estimated cost of the expansion project is $7.4 billion.

However, there has been opposition from the B.C. government and environmental groups, as well as court challenges stalling construction, since it was first granted approval by the federal government in2016.

Moe said the province is looking at retaliatory legislation being considered in Alberta that would stop energy products from that province flowing west to B.C.

“If Alberta does turn the taps off it won’t be Saskatchewan filling up the fuel tanks in British Columbia,” Moe said on Wednesday, repeating a sentiment he had previously stated.

Rather than committing to Saskatchewan opening itself up to negotiations with potential talks between Alberta, Ottawa and Kinder Morgan about taking on ownership of the project, Moe pointed to the B.C. government trying to “exert influence” over a federal matter.

Pipeline opponents contend an oil spill would harm the Pacific coastline and that the constitutional right of First Nations communities to give consent before such projects are approved has not yet happened. There are more than 30 First Nations supporting the project, but others that do not.