Pipeline backers play hardball with Horgan
If you think Kinder Morgan’s executives are sitting back in their corporate boardroom right now with Texas-sized grins on their faces, maybe think again.
Yes, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau on Wednesday did offer to indemnify the company against any of their losses due to the anti-pipeline antics of B.C. Premier John Horgan.
You might think that’s exactly the trap that Kinder Morgan wanted Ottawa to blunder into: Put Canadian taxpayers’ money at risk, while the Houston-based oil barons soak up all the profits.
It reminds me of that Danny DeVito line in the movie of the same name: “There’s only one thing I like better than money. Other people’s
money!”
But here’s the thing: The consistent behind-the-scenes buzz coming out of Ottawa and elsewhere is that Kinder Morgan wanted a lot more than what Morneau offered. One popular theory is that the company
wanted the federal government to completely buy out their $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline project, lock, stock and oil barrel.
Morneau didn’t go there, saying he was willing to indemnify the company against “politically motivated” losses (translation: the B.C. government’s anti-pipeline delaying tactics), while insisting the same deal is available to any other pipeline players that want to take over the project if Kinder Morgan walks away.
So where does this leave taxpayers? Nervously watching and wondering where it’s all going.
“The worst-case scenario for taxpayers would be for the government to buy the project outright,” Aaron Wudrick of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation told me. “Thankfully,
Morneau didn’t go that far. At least it sounds like millions-of-dollars, not billions. But I still don’t like it.” Neither do I. How could anyone? Even the hardcore pipeline supporters out there can’t be happy at the prospect of their tax dollars being pumped into the project.
In this wildest of all internecine political fights, this one now enters into a nasty new phase. Morneau is already heaping blame on Horgan for “the uncertainty that the NDP Horgan government has created.”
“Premier Horgan’s stated intentions are to do whatever it takes to stop the project, which is unconstitutional,” Morneau said. “These are challenges that frankly put the livelihoods of thousands of Canadians and their families at risk.”
Translation: If taxpayers end up getting burned on this, don’t blame me, blame John Horgan. And if the whole thing falls apart, and the pipeline doesn’t get built at all, that will be Horgan’s fault too.
You can bet Horgan is fuming over the hardball tactics coming out of Ottawa, and from Alberta (Premier Rachel Notley repeated her threat Wednesday to “turn off the taps” and restrict oil shipments to B.C.)
Horgan’s challenge now is to convince British Columbians that his anti-pipeline tactics are in B.C.’s best interests. That will be a tough job, with all his rivals painting him as the bad guy, no matter how it all turns out.