PIPELINE FALLOUT
Wall sees surge in western alienation
Saskatchewan premiers past and present are raising concerns about the federal ruling that has left the Trans Mountain pipeline in limbo.
Brad Wall, following Thursday’s ruling, said he feels western alienation in Canada has reached heights not seen since Pierre Trudeau, the father of current prime minister Justin Trudeau, was prime minister.
“I have never observed or felt this level of western alienation at least from Sask and Alberta,” the former premier tweeted on Friday. “Including 18 years of elected politics in Sk and even my recollection of the NEP-effect under the elder Trudeau.”
Wall was a vocal critic of the Trudeau government’s plan to implement a federal carbon tax. His tweet on Friday came a day after Premier Scott Moe voiced his own concerns about the ruling.
Moe said the federal government should be doing everything it can to ensure the pipeline gets constructed. Moe said an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada should be launched “at the first opportunity.”
“The impact economically to the province and industry, to the jobs that we have in this province, is severe,” Moe said to reporters.
“So we would like to see this project start construction as soon as possible, see it through to fruition, so that we can access other markets with our western Canadian oil and provide the opportunity to start to narrow that price differential that Saskatchewan is experiencing at the moment.”
On Thursday, the Federal Court of Appeal announced that the National Energy Board’s review of the expansion proposal was so flawed that the federal government could not have relied on it when making a decision about whether to go ahead with the project.
The court also said the government did not adequately consult with First Nations.
The federal government will need to conduct a new review of the project and hold more consultations with First Nations groups before the expansion goes ahead; the government has held firm that the project will continue.
Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau has said the government will continue to move forward with the project.
An offer by the federal government to purchase the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion from Kinder Morgan Canada for $4.5 billion was approved by the company Thursday after the court decision was released.
However, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, welcomed the ruling and the message it sends about the importance of consulting with First Nations.
“It seems clear to me that the quasi-judicial boards, such as the National Energy Board, which determines whether First Nations were adequately consulted, are failing the First Nations peoples in this country,” FSIN vice-chief Heather Bear said in a news release on Thursday.
“This is a costly mistake for government, given that the project may be held up in court for years. Government, whether at the federal or provincial level, cannot repeatedly run roughshod over our Treaty rights.”