PM’s pipeline gambit could salvage Energy East

By creating new conditions for pipeline development, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has opened an interesting can of worms.

Wednesday’s joint announcement by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr does not deliver a definitive yes or no to controversial projects like TransCanada’s proposed Energy East heavy-oil pipeline from Alberta to New Brunswick.

Rather, it amends the criteria by which such projects are judged.

But the announcement also sends conflicting signals about the Liberal government’s ultimate intentions.

Is Ottawa serious about taking into account the climate-change effects of pipeline development? If it were, arguably no new pipelines would be built to service the Alberta oilsands, already the fastest-growing source of Canadian greenhouse gases.

Or is the government merely forcing pipeline proponents to jump through hoops in an effort to make their projects more acceptable to the general public?

Some of the new interim measures announced Wednesday aren’t new. The ministers said the government wants to hear from affected local communities when deciding on projects such as oil pipelines. But that already happens.

They said indigenous groups affected by any project must be consulted. But that, as the Supreme Court has ruled, is the law.

Other new measures are unclear. The ministers said, for instance, that the government will base its decisions not just on science but on the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples “and other relevant evidence,” whatever that means.

But one new measure is potentially radical. The government says it will explicitly look at something the current National Energy Board does not consider — whether new pipelines would lead to more greenhouse gas emissions from the Alberta oilsands.

The ministerial statement speaks to more than just pipelines. A spokesperson for McKenna says the new interim measures will apply to any project currently undergoing a federal environmental assessment, of which there are 89.

But pipelines remain the political focus.

Trudeau has long said that the aim of new pipeline rules is to help oilsands producers market their bitumen

In Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, pipeline critics fret about leaks. Even the Ontario Energy Board has weighed in, reporting last summer that TransCanada’s plan to move heavy oil though its existing cross-Canada, natural-gas pipeline would endanger provincial waterways, including Lake Nipigon, the Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence.

Montreal-area mayors such as Denis Coderre object for similar reasons. In B.C., much of the opposition to Kinder Morgan is centred in the Vancouver region, where critics worry that the pipeline will lead to more tanker traffic and dangerous oil spills.

Yet, in Ontario at least, criticism on this level can easily be soothed. The Ontario Energy Board report makes commonsense suggestions such as relocating portions of the pipeline away from waterways.

It also suggests that TransCanada replace damaged portions of the pipeline that have been patched with plastic tape.

And it calls for the pipeline plan to be tweaked to ensure that residents of Eastern Ontario still have enough natural gas to heat their homes in the winter.

All of these remedies are easily doable. If TransCanada agreed, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario government would find it politically easier to get off the fence and back a project that, at base, it does not oppose.

Greenhouse gases pose a thornier problem. The Ontario Energy Board commissioned research that calculates Energy East will increase carbon emissions in Canada by less than 2 per cent.

That may not be much mathematically. But at a time when Canada is unable to meet its self-imposed carbon-reduction targets, it does represent movement in the wrong direction.

Trudeau has long said that the aim of new pipeline rules, such as those announced this week, is to help oilsands producers market their bitumen.

I’m not sure that they will be enough to save Kinder Morgan. Even the B.C. government is washing its hands of that pipeline. But Energy East is an easier sell. As long as its critics remain focused on spills rather than climate change, the prime minister’s gambit may well succeed. Thomas Walkom’s column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.