Singh won’t rule out keeping pipeline if he is elected

Longtime critic of project said he’d have to assess government-owned asset

OTTAWA—NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, a vocal opponent of the Trans Mountain expansion, might not scrap the controversial pipeline project if his party wins power in the Sept. 20 federal election.

Asked Friday whether he would cancel construction of the government-owned project if he becomes prime minister, Singh stressed that he has always opposed the expansion of the oil pipeline but would review the situation before making any decision.

“Once we form government, we’ll look at the asset and make the best determination on what to do moving forward,” Singh said in Thunder Bay. “But it’s clear that my position has always been that (the expansion) was a wrong decision that Justin Trudeau made.”

Trans Mountain, the Crown corporation that has owned the pipeline since the Liberal government purchased it for $4.4 billion in 2018, confirmed by email Friday that 30 per cent of the expansion project has already been built. The corporation has spent $8.4 billion on the expansion so far, and expects it to be finished by “the end of 2022.”

For years, Singh has attacked Trudeau’s Liberals for buying the existing pipeline from Texas-based oil giant Kinder Morgan to ensure the expansion was completed. The project sparked a feud between New Democrat governments in British Columbia and Alberta, and Singh’s opposition to the expansion soured relations with Rachel Notley when she was the NDP premier of Alberta.

The federal Liberals, meanwhile, have defended their decision to spend billions on the expansion project, arguing it will allow Alberta-based oil companies to sell bitumen for higher prices and bring in government revenue to fund efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. According to Trans Mountain, the project will cost at least $12.7 billion and lead to increased revenues of $73.5 billion for oil companies and $46.7 billion in provincial and federal revenue after 20 years of operation.

Singh said Friday that he believes the government should be spending its money on other priorities, such as renewable energy projects, rather than on a project to expand the oil pipeline, which runs from outside Edmonton to the Burrard Inlet in the Lower Mainland of B.C.

The federal NDP has previously called for the expansion to be scrapped, such as in 2018, when Singh argued the Liberal government was wasting money better spent on policies to reduce emissions.

The NDP is vowing to stop all federal subsidies that flow to oil and gas companies, and wants to further increase Canada’s national emissions target to 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, after the Liberals set a new target of at least 40 per cent earlier this year.

The NDP has pledged to make the federal carbon price stricter on heavy industry by dismantling a special system created under the Trudeau Liberals to ensure businesses like cement and steel manufacturing don’t shut down or shift production to jurisdictions with weaker climate policies.

Canada has failed on every international commitment to reduce emissions it has ever made, and national greenhouse gas pollution only dropped by about one per cent between 2005 and 2019, according to the government’s most recent tally submitted to the United Nations.

During that time, emissions from oil and gas extraction in Canada increased 67 per cent — more than any other sector measured in the tally.