Smiles mask drawn daggers
ALBERTA , B.C. LEADERS PUT ON POSITIVE FRONT AMID PIPELINE EXPANSION SPAT
The leaders of Alberta and B.C. on Thursday sought to calm relations between the two provinces amid a battle over the Trans Mountain pipeline, diminishing the likelihood that Alberta Premier Jason Kenney would use his “turn off the taps” legislation to cut off oil to the West Coast.
B.C. Premier John Horgan said while he remained firmly opposed to the pipeline expansion, his government has been issuing the necessary construction permits for the project and has not actively impeded Trans Mountain.
“We have not been dragging our feet on this — the rule of law is paramount in Canada,” Horgan said of the issuing of construction permits.
His comments came at the end of the daylong annual meeting of Western premiers in Edmonton, where leaders discussed twinning the Trans Mountain pipeline, improving interprovincial trade
ties and establishing a so-called “energy corridor” to more easily allow for the construction of pipelines and power lines.
“I have no quarrel with the people of Alberta, I have no quarrel with people in other parts of Canada, but I have a responsibility to protect the things that matter to British Columbians,” Horgan said on Trans Mountain.
“I think we understand each other’s positions very clearly,” Kenney said, calling the session on Thursday “constructive.”
The meeting marked the first time the neighbouring premiers met face-to-face since the United Conservative Party took power in Alberta in April. The friendly tone belied a fundamental disagreement that persists between Horgan and Kenney.
Horgan said he would still press ahead with a legal reference that questions Alberta’s right to ship diluted bitumen across B.C., repeating earlier statements that he would take the issue to the Supreme Court of Canada. That legal reference was the central motivator behind Kenney’s Bill 12 — though few observers expected him to follow through on threats to enforce the law as a way to squeeze oil supplies to British Columbia, a move that would likely cause a short-term spike in gasoline prices in the Vancouver region.
On June 18, the federal government once again approved the Trans Mountain pipeline, after purchasing the project for $4.4 billion last August.
Two days after the re-approval, the Senate passed two highly contentious natural resource bills that have also been the focus of intense criticism by Kenney and other provincial leaders.
In comments ahead of the meeting, Kenney said he hoped to establish stronger ties between provincial leaders and “make our Western provinces and territories the source of Canada’s strength and economic growth and opportunity,” signalling that natural resources would be a central aspect of the discussions.
The meeting also included Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, Yukon Premier Sandy Silver, Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod and Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq.
“I’m hoping to count on each of you as partners in delivering what we know is a vision that we share,” Kenney said.
Remarks from all leaders on Thursday struck a far less combative tone than last year’s gathering in Yellowknife, when then Alberta premier Rachel Notley pulled out of the meeting at the last minute, sending deputy premier Sarah Hoffman to attend in her stead.
Notley at the time blasted the proposed agenda for the event, which did not include discussions around the Trans Mountain pipeline, and dismissed the proposal on Twitter as “surreal and exceptionally tone deaf.” Horgan had instead elected to discuss such issues as pharmacare and cannabis, according to reports.
At the time, the former private-sector owner of Trans Mountain, Houston-based Kinder Morgan, was threatening to abandon its multibillion-dollar expansion project after the B.C. premier launched the legal reference targeting oilsands bitumen.
The move by Horgan set off a bitter feud between the two provinces, including threats by Alberta to ban imports of B.C. wine, and even shut off the existing Trans Mountain pipeline to cut off supplies of various petrol
I’m hoping to count on each of you as partners.
eum products.
This year, however, the political makeup of the meeting was drastically altered, following a Conservative sweep in a number of provinces.
Most leaders on Thursday remain firmly supportive of fossil fuel production in Canada. McLeod, the N.W.T. premier, signed on to a recent letter sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which suggested C-69 and C-48, two deeply opposed federal bills, amounted to threats to Canada’s national unity. Moe’s Saskatchewan Party and Pallister’s Progressive Conservatives, meanwhile, still hold power east of Alberta, and also blasted the legislation.
Horgan, at least on that front, remained the obvious outsider on Thursday, having supported both bills and having actively campaigned to restrict oil flows through B.C. He has also been supportive of liquefied natural gas exports in the province.