NOTLEY GIVES HORGAN THE BACK OF HER HAND
Attending western premiers summit would be ‘surreal’ right now, she says
The long weekend saw another outbreak of hostilities between the country’s two New Democratic Party governments over the proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
It began innocently with B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan telling reporters, in advance of Tuesday’s gathering of the western premiers in Yellowknife, that he was looking forward to meeting with his Alberta NDP counterpart, Rachel Notley.
“We have a disagreement on one issue,” said Horgan. “Our values are in lockstep. We have been friends for 20 years.”
He also recounted to Postmedia’s Rob Shaw how in 2015 he’d travelled all the way to Edmonton for Notley’s swearing-in ceremony, characterizing it as “one of the happiest days I can remember.”
But the Alberta premier was not of a mind to be charmed.
On Monday afternoon Notley announced she would sit out the western premiers conference, preferring to devote full attention to the looming deadline regarding the fate of the pipeline project.
Never mind an agenda calling for discussions on a national pharmacare program and cannabis legalization, or the fact that Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Manitoba’s Brian Pallister were both on her side on the pipeline.
Notley’s ire was focused on the holdout premier of B.C. “It would be surreal and exceptionally tone deaf for anyone to think we could politely discuss Pharmacare and cannabis when one of the players is hard at work trying to choke the economic lifeblood of the province and the country,” she wrote in a Twitter posting.
Then came a statement from her communications chief Cheryl Oates that signalled a low-water mark in personal relations between the two NDP premiers.
“They are not close friends and never were,” Oates told columnist Don Braid of the Calgary Herald. “They were just acquaintances who happened to work for the same organization.”
The organization being the B.C. NDP government of the 1990s, where both were staffers in an oftentimes faction-ridden party.
Horgan worked for cabinet minister, later premier, Dan Miller, putting him in the orbit of former premier Glen Clark. Notley worked for cabinet minister later premier Ujjal Dosanjh, regarded as an un-person by some members of the current government because he later joined the federal Liberals.
With the unfriended Horgan bound for Yellowknife Tuesday, it fell to Attorney General David Eby to deliver the rejoinder for the B.C. NDP.
He did so by adding another lawsuit to the well-funded mix of legal actions related to the pipeline: this one a constitutional challenge to the Notley government-authored legislation that would allow Alberta to cut off shipments of oil to B.C.
“We believe it would be reckless in the extreme, and therefore highly unlikely that Alberta will actually attempt to use the powers they granted to themselves,” Eby told reporters.
But just in case, he said, B.C. is preparing an injunction application and possible suit for damages in addition to the constitutional challenge.
Eby then provided an update on a half-dozen legal and regulatory actions regarding the Trans Mountain expansion — his way of denying that B.C. is to blame for the lack of certainty, cited by builder Kinder Morgan, in imposing a May 31 deadline for going ahead with the project.
On permitting, he noted that the New Democrats have been granting those “at the same pace and on the same process as the previous government.”
They’ve also been in court defending one of the B.C. Liberal-approved permits against a First Nation’s challenge.
As for the reference case, where the province seeks court approval to regulate increased shipments of heavy oil from Alberta, nothing about that proceeding prevents construction from going ahead, Eby insisted.
He noted how when B.C. announced the reference case back in February, the Alberta premier hailed it as “an important step forward” and a pretext for abandoning a boycott of B.C. wine.
On Tuesday, Notley ridiculed the latest move from B.C.
“On one hand, they don’t want our oil,” she said. “On the other hand they are suing us to get our oil.”
She mock-thanked Eby for filing his legal action before Alberta worked out the permitting process to restrict shipments of oil to B.C. “We now have insights into their legal arguments and that is helpful,” she said.
What would B.C. have to do to avoid any reduction in oil shipments? It could start by swearing that the reference case is “the very last thing ” it will do to restrict movement of bitumen and operation of the expanded pipeline, she said.
Instead the Horgan government continues to play what she called “legal rope a dope,” saying “we’re just doing this one thing,” but not ruling out other actions if the reference case fails.
“They must think that everybody was born yesterday,” she said.
But for all the cross-border wrangling between the rival NDP governments, there’s a more important legal action looming over pipeline expansion.
“The big one,” as Eby calls it, is the First Nations challenge to the overall federal government approval of the project.
The case was heard more than seven months ago in the Federal Court of Appeal. First Nations are now seeking to reopen the case, citing new evidence that the cabinet greenlit the expansion before properly consulting them.
“If that case is successful, Kinder Morgan starts back at square one,” said Eby, which would render the other litigation moot.
But for now, the hourly billings meter is running.
They are not close friends and never were. They were just acquaintances who happened to work for the same organization. CHERYL OATES, Notley communications chief