TRAIN CROSSING SPARKS FEUD.

Atrain has proven the latest source of controversy between Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Amarjeet Sohi and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

It’s a mix of pipeline politics, infrastructure announcements and the sort of zinger-flinging that’s a key component of politics-by-twitter.

SO, WHAT HAPPENED?

It all began during rush hour on Tuesday, when Sohi, who’s an Edmonton MP, tweeted a photo of cars stopped for a train running down 50th Street in Edmonton.

“This train is so annoying,” he wrote.

IS THAT A BIG DEAL?

Well, that’s a deeply hated rail crossing in Edmonton. It even has it’s own website with a livestream of the intersection. Its located at street level, so, at any given time, you might be moseying along in your automobile and get stopped by a train. In fact, about eight trains cross that intersection per day, which can add up to as much as 30 minutes to two hours of delays.

With 35,000 cars going through that intersection each day, and delays ranging from four minutes to 15 minutes per train, it’s a recipe for crankiness among Edmonton drivers.

OK, SO, WHAT HAPPENED WITH KENNEY?

Well, you might notice that in the photo the rail cars aren’t regular shipping containers carrying whatever shipping containers carry. They sure look like oil tankers.

This is where we get into pipeline politics.

“They are moving oil that could have been shipped more safely by the Northern Gateway and Energy East pipelines,” Kenney tweeted.

Credit also goes to Brad Wall, the former premier of Saskatchewan, who wrote “Um ... those look like oil cars Minister. But maybe they’re hauling irony.”

OH, RIGHT, BECAUSE MORE OIL IS GOING BY TRAIN NOW

Yep. Alberta, because of a lack of pipeline capacity, is moving lots of oil by rail. The National Energy Board says some 286,000 barrels of oil per day were exported by rail in June 2019.

It’s more expensive and more dangerous. And, because there was a huge backlog of oil barrels due to this lack of transport capacity, there was a big price discount on Alberta oil last year that the province has tried to tackle with a rail deal (which Kenney has promised to cancel) and a restriction on the amount of oil that’s produced each day.

You might remember that the Trans Mountain expansion was re-approved earlier this summer, after last summer, the Federal Court of Appeals put a halt on it, sending the government back to re-do its consultations on the matter. On Wednesday, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled it would hear a legal challenge — again — to the Trans Mountain pipeline construction.

When it does get up and running, Trans Mountain will transport nearly 600,000 more barrels per day than it does now.

However, it’s actually not known for sure what’s in those rail cars. The Canadian Pacific Railway declined to comment.

It could be oil, but other chemicals and substances are carried in tankers, too.

OK, BUT THAT CROSSING IS A PAIN ISN’T IT?

It sure is! And, as it happens, it’s actually a government priority because the eight or so trains per day cause such strife. The federal government is contributing nearly $40 million to widen 50th Street and fix the rail crossing, among other improvements to the thoroughfare.

In other words, it would make it easier to drive through because the train wouldn’t stop traffic anymore.

Given this context, Sohi doubled down in a tweet Wednesday morning: “The Premier is clearly out of touch with the traffic reality faced by residents & businesses in southeast Edmonton. This rail crossing has been a problem for two decades.”

SO, IN CONCLUSION ...?

Well, Sohi has a hand in getting pipeline projects approved, which could reduce oil-by-train traffic, and — perhaps, assuming this is an oil train — make life easier for commuting Edmontonians.

SO KENNEY HAS A POINT

Of course, so does Sohi. That crossing is a tremendous pain and Edmontonians like to gripe about it.