Premiers meeting ‘time well spent’
Horgan shrugs off pipeline feud with Alberta as pharmacare and legal pot top agenda
VICTORIA — B.C. Premier John Horgan says progress was made on issues like pharmacare, legalized marijuana and other national concerns at a conference of Canada’s western premiers even if Alberta refused to sign on to the final communique and focused entirely on the dispute involving Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline.
Horgan said a meeting of premiers and territorial leaders in Yellowknife Wednesday was “time well spent” despite the pipeline feud with Alberta.
“I think that was instructive for some who felt that British Columbia was being more recalcitrant than we actually are,” Horgan told reporters by telephone Wednesday.
“I didn’t feel any pressure, to be quite honest with you. Of course Alberta had their opinion and I respect that, but no one else pressured me to do anything other than make my views known at the table.”
The leaders of B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nunavut, Yukon and Northwest Territories emerged with a joint communique prioritizing key interprovincial issues. But Alberta refused to sign because it did not contain stronger language in support of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Alberta has threatened to cut off oil exports to B.C. if B.C. does not provide certainty the project can proceed before a May 31 deadline set by Kinder Morgan.
“We had one key issue of importance that we were here to discuss;
unfortunately we didn’t get consensus on that item,” said deputy Alberta premier Sarah Hoffman, who attended the conference after Alberta Premier Rachel Notley refused.
“While I love pharmacare and love work we’re doing to ensure youth and our streets are safe with the legalization of cannabis, all of this costs money. And we have one way to ensure we have that money and resources and that is for us to move forward with this project in the national interest. That’s what I
came here to do ... Unfortunately we didn’t get consensus on Trans Mountain today.”
Horgan reiterated that the potential environmental risks of a coastal oil spill would be entirely borne by B.C. if the pipeline was twinned, while Alberta would enjoy the bulk of the economic rewards.
Western premiers found consensus positions on key issues like Ottawa’s proposal for a national pharmacare plan and gaps in roadside testing for legal marijuana in advance of a
national meeting of provincial and territorial leaders this summer.
Alberta appeared to try to rally other provinces to sign a pro-pipeline statement without B.C., but was unsuccessful. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe was outspoken in his support of Trans Mountain and called on the federal government to find a path forward.
“The tone from Sarah Hoffman was everything focused on the pipeline,” said Horgan. “Whether we have a national pharmacare plan
depended on a pipeline, whether we talked about protecting drivers from impaired driving because of cannabis use was about the pipeline. Their focus, whether it be deputy premier Hoffman or Premier Notley, they focused on May 31 as the end of something. And everyone else at the table was focused on the agenda, which was meeting the long-term needs, not the short term, of our constituents.”