Feds say pipeline is not a bargaining chip
OTTAWA — The Liberal government expects to get $500 million a year out of the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline and is promising to spend it all on cleaner sources of energy and projects that pull carbon out of the atmosphere.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the expanded pipeline is not fodder for negotiating with other parties in the minority government. Rather, he said, it is a crucial piece of the puzzle of financing Canada’s transition to a clean energy economy.
“We purchased it for a reason,” Morneau said. “We now see how it can help us accelerate our clean energy transition by putting any revenues that we get from it into a transition to clean energy. We think that is the best way we can move forward in our current context.” The Liberal government bought the existing pipeline for $4.5 billion in 2018, in a bid to overcome the opposition of the British Columbia government to the expansion.
Federally, the NDP and Greens — the two parties with the most in common with the Liberals on climate change — think the expansion should be cancelled. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh underlined that point in a statement Thursday about a phone call the previous day with Alberta NDP Leader
Rachel Notley.
“Ms. Notley repeated her support for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and I told her that I continue to oppose the pipeline expansion,” Singh said, though he added: “While we disagree on TMX, we share concern for the workers.”
The NDP has enough seats to support the Liberals through any confidence votes. But while the NDP leader has said he wants tougher climate action, Singh has stopped short of using the pipeline as a line in the sand, suggesting that ship has effectively sailed.
Morneau said construction on the pipeline is underway and the decision to go forward has been made, which means there is really no way to use it as a bargaining chip in the minority government.
The Liberals were accused Thursday of a “lack of coherence” on the party’s plans to expand the pipeline and fight climate change.
“From our perspective, there’s strong concern with the lack of coherence between moving ahead on a plan to address climate change while investing in fossil-fuel infrastructure,” said Nature Canada campaigns director Gauri Sreenivasan during a news conference on Parliament Hill.
Construction on the expansion is supposed to be done by the middle of 2022. The Liberal platform forecasted taking revenues of $125 million from Trans Mountain Canada in 2021-22 and then $500 million in each of the next two years.
Eventually, Morneau said the plan is to sell it back to the private sector and all of the revenues from the sale will then go to clean energy development and other climate change action projects.
The one specific promise the Liberals made that they connected to pipeline revenues was a $300-million annual fund for natural climate solutions including tree planting, as well as conservation and restoration of forests, grasslands, agricultural lands and coastal areas.
Construction on the pipeline was halted in September 2018, after the Federal Court of Appeal overturned federal approval citing insufficient environmental and Indigenous consultations. Cabinet undertook new rounds of both and approved the expansion again in June.
Construction on the pipeline then resumed in August, starting with work on the marine terminals in British Columbia and pumping stations in Alberta. Thus far, more than 2,200 workers have been hired. The expansion will see a second pipeline built roughly parallel to the first that can carry almost twice as much crude oil every day.
There is however a new federal court challenge underway from Indigenous communities.