STILL WAITING ON THE BIG QUESTION
NDP yet to seek court’s opinion on ‘harmful’ pipeline oil entering B.C.
VICTORIA A court reference that the B.C. government promised to file over the Kinder Morgan pipeline hasn’t materialized after almost two months.
Environment Minister George Heyman said Tuesday his government is still waiting for the independent lawyer it hired, Joseph Arvay, to draft a reference question on B.C.’s jurisdiction to restrict new oil flow from the proposed twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Arvay must also decide whether to file the reference question to the B.C. Supreme Court or Court of Appeal.
“It’s important when we hire expert outside counsel to allow those people to do a careful review and prepare the best case they can,” said Heyman. “But I’m hopeful we will be able to give an estimated filing date very, very soon.”
When pressed, Heyman said that timeline would be “certainly less than a month.”
B.C. said in February it would send a reference question to the courts about whether it has the jurisdiction to limit substances that are harmful to the environment from entering the province.
Projects like the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, which cross provincial borders, constitutionally fall under federal jurisdiction. Ottawa approved the pipeline expansion in 2016.
B.C.’s promise of a court reference in February ended a brewing trade war with Alberta, which had banned the import of B.C. wine in retaliation for what it said was B.C. acting outside its authority to frustrate the pipeline. Both the Alberta and federal governments at the time seemed to accept B.C.’s court reference process.
Then Kinder Morgan said Sunday the uncertainty caused by B.C.’s public opposition to the pipeline will force it to cancel the $7.4-billion pipeline expansion project by the end of May if governments don’t provide more reassurance.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has said her government will introduce legislation to limit gas exports to B.C. and possibly the rest of Canada in retaliation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused Horgan of frustrating the national economy and climate plan.
Ottawa could withhold some of the billions it provides annually in transfer payments to B.C., imperilling the province’s balanced budget.
B.C.’s Liberal opposition critic Peter Milobar said Tuesday the government’s lack of progress on its promised court reference question is part of a “troubling timeline” from a New Democrat administration that has a clear strategy to delay and frustrate Kinder Morgan.
“In the beginning of March the attorney general said they hoped to have counsel in place in a week and he expected it only to take a month to get the reference question settled and which court to take it to,” said Milobar.
“Instead, what we heard (this week) was still a very unclear answer to a timeline. On a file as important as this, as nationally important as this is becoming, you’d hope the government would have a little more clarity around what they are actually doing.”
Notley told her legislature this week that the federal government is also considering whether to file its own reference question to the Supreme Court of Canada, thereby overriding B.C.’s process and getting the courts moving.
“That is, absolutely, one tool that could potentially add certainty to the matter,” she said Monday.
“As I’ve said before, there are different tools, all of which are focused on ensuring certainty so that the investors move forward with construction, and we are going to continue to advocate that all of those tools be used and, in fact, that the work that is underway be accelerated.”