HORGAN IN LOCKSTEP WITH GREENS
Ottawa Buying Trans Mountain doesn’t weaken reference case, he says
For Premier John Horgan the day began shortly before 6 a.m., with a pre-scheduled call from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing Ottawa’s plan to buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline, lock, stock and expansion plan.
“I reiterated to him that it didn’t really matter who owns the pipe,” the premier told CKNW broadcaster Jon McComb shortly afterward. “It was the product that was travelling through it and the potential negative consequences to our environment and our economy that I was concerned about.”
Though the PM’s call came “very early, before the coffee had made its way through my system,” Horgan characterized the exchange as polite overall.
“This is an area where we disagree,” he told reporters during a followup news conference at the legislature. “But I believe that our relationship, myself and the PM, is a positive one, and we’ll be able to continue to meet the needs of B.C. taxpayers on a whole host of issues.”
Did Trudeau ask him to back off the reference case, where B.C. asks the courts to clarify its power to regulate increased shipments of bitumen by pipeline and rail?
“No he didn’t,” said Horgan, and, in any event “I don’t have any intention of doing that … I said as much to the prime minister this morning and there was no comment from him on that.”
He disputed the notion that a change of ownership could weaken the provincial case by transferring the project from a private company to a federal Crown corporation.
“The question that we put to the court did not talk about federal Crown corporations. It did not talk about private companies.
“It talked about a substance and our ability to regulate that substance,” returned the premier.
“So the advice that I got this morning, based on what we know about the federal government’s action, is that our reference case will continue.”
He later assured me he’d doubled checked that line of reasoning with government lawyers, and came away believing that the province still has a leg to stand on in court.
Horgan even professed to see the bright side in the federal move to take ownership of the project, presuming no private buyers step forward before the August closure of this week’s tentative deal with Kinder Morgan.
“The federal government now is totally accountable, not just for regulation and approval of a pipeline, but they now are responsible from wellhead to tidewater and beyond,” he told reporters. “So the good news, if there is any to be had today, is that the government of Canada needs to be accountable for their Ocean Protection Plan, and, if there are gaps in that plan, I’ll be able to speak directly to the owners of the pipeline to make my concerns known and BCers can join me in that.”
The closest Horgan came to directly criticizing the federal takeover was during question period in the legislature, when the Opposition B.C. Liberals blasted him for “recklessly” scaring off a private investor and forcing Ottawa’s hand in nationalizing the pipeline.
“There’s nothing at all reckless about asking a court, a third party, to clarify jurisdictional disputes within our Canadian confederation. That’s what we’ve done,” Horgan fired back.
“The federal government made the decision to take tax dollars and invest them in a private company,” he continued, addressing the Opposition directly. “If you have a concern with that, I encourage members to resign their seats, run for Parliament and take it up with (federal finance minister Bill) Morneau.”
As the premier roused the NDP side of the house with those and other lines, Green Leader Andrew Weaver provided a telling study from his post in the chamber.
Most days, the Greens don’t join in the rah-rah with the New Democrats.
But during Horgan’s takedown of the federal and provincial Liberals on the pipeline, Weaver was as enthusiastic in his applause as any member of the NDP cheering section.
The day marked the first anniversary of the GreenNDP power-sharing agreement, including the commitment to “immediately employ every tool available to the new government to stop the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, the seven-fold increase in tanker traffic on our coast, and the transportation of raw bitumen through our province.”
On that score, the two parties remain in lockstep — Horgan being determined not to allow any daylight between him and Weaver on the evils of increased shipments of bitumen.
But mindful of the politically charged atmosphere around the Trans Mountain expansion project, Horgan wrapped up question period with a few words of caution to pipeline opponents if construction goes ahead.
“When it comes to lawful civil disobedience, all members understand that in this great country, we have rights to exercise our disapproval of governmental process,” said the premier in response to a question from the Liberals.
“The member’s question was quite clearly directed at those who would protest in a violent way,” the premier continued.
“I categorically reject that, and I know he shares that view, as all members do.
“Civil disobedience is a fundamental right in our country — all of us will want to uphold that. Breaking the law is not.”
On a day when the premier was mostly cool, calm and collected about the pipeline, it was the only time he betrayed any anxiety about what could yet prove to be a long, hot summer on the protest line.
If you have a concern with that, I encourage members to resign their seats, run for Parliament and take it up with Morneau.
JOHN HORGAN, premier