Horgan has right idea

While Alberta Premier Rachel Notley cranked up the rhetoric in the pipeline dispute with B.C., our premier, John Horgan, kept his cool.

Too cool, according to some critics. But as we discovered on Monday, Horgan was working on a response behind the scenes while steering away from a war of words with the Alberta premier.

In response to Horgan’s announcement that B.C. would limit the flow of bitumen until more environmental studies are conducted, Notley took after B.C. wine producers by banning their products from distribution in her grape-starved province.

The Alberta premier also announced talks on buying B.C. electricity would stop and has threatened further, unnamed, retaliatory measures.

Going after B.C. energy exports is an understandable tit-for-tat measure, but going after B.C. wine producers, who have nothing to do with an energy dispute, was a low blow by the Alberta premier.

While some people wanted Horgan to answer Notley by raising his voice and pounding his fists on the table, the B.C. premier has answered Alberta’s emotional response with a legal approach.

The B.C. government had already announced it would appeal a decision that allows Kinder Morgan to bypass local regulations in building its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The National Energy Board had ruled the company does not have to comply with Burnaby bylaws on land and tree clearances.

Now, the B.C. government has said it will launch a formal challenge to Alberta’s wine ban under the Canadian free trade agreement, signed last year by all the provinces and territories.

It’s the first time such a challenge has been launched.

The procedure requires governments to attempt a negotiated solution. If that fails, the case will go to a tribunal.

The Horgan government did its homework to come up with this response.

New B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson, among others, had been calling on Horgan to go to Alberta to negotiate.

Now, there will be talks in a structured format.

The Alberta premier is, of course, defending her province’s interests, but she and other pipeline proponents are wrong to think the B.C. government should just shut up about the matter.

Horgan’s job as premier is also to look out for this province’s best interests and to fight for them.

It’s true some people think a pipeline is in B.C.’s best interest. That’s not an outrageous position to take. But the current government is concerned about the many impacts the project could have on the environment. Horgan wouldn’t be much of a defender of B.C. if he just caved in to what Notley and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau think should happen in this province.

His calm, legalistic approach is best to answer the heated rhetoric of others.

— Kelowna Daily Courier