Kinder Morgan pipeline close to meeting British Columbia conditio

Land-locked Alberta, which has the world’s third largest oil reserves, needs more pipelines to export its oil sands production to global markets.

She says nearly all the conditions have been met but that progress still being made on two of them; one what she calls BC getting its “fair share of the economic benefits”.

Trudeau said the government’s approval of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline was the “right thing” for the country. She has not yet said if Trudeau’s series of recent environmental measures will satisfy the five.

Enbridge, however, will be allowed to replace the Canadian segments of its ageing Line 3 from Alberta to Wisconsin.

And it rejected the construction of a new oil conduit to the Pacific that would have crossed a temperate rainforest: Enbridge’s Northern Gateway.

“The fact of the matter is we made this decision because it’s in the interest of all Canadians”, said Trudeau in a press conference.

Throughout last year’s election campaign and his government’s first year in office, Trudeau has championed the environment, promised to work with First Nations communities and revamp the review process for energy projects.

But the province’s NDP leader is accusing the Premier of flipping the switch on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline and throwing her support behind a “seven-fold” increase in tanker traffic.

Meanwhile, it has rejected the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, and put a moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on B.C.’s northern coast.

“It has been a long dark night for the people of Alberta. today we are finally seeing some morning light”, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told reporters in Ottawa after talks with Trudeau.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, who was arrested in November 2014 on Burnaby Mountain for protesting Kinder Morgan’s project, said in a statement Tuesday that he and fellow leaders will do “whatever it takes to stop the pipeline from going through”.

Aboriginals and environmental activists feared a spill from tankers sipping from a terminal connected to the Northern Gateway pipeline could damage the pristine coastline that includes salmon-bearing rivers and the habitat of a rare white bear. The news was met with celebration from those First Nations opposed and environmental groups.

And even if the courts were to rule in First Nations’ favour that they were not adequately consulted, it does not mean the government and company could not pay a penalty later with compensation for First Nations, said Christie.

“They sold us out”.

The Trans Mountain expansion project was not considered controversial project at the time, because it follows an already existing line that has been shipping oil from northern Alberta to the coast of British Columbia for decades.

But other battles lie ahead.

Trudeau also announced the approval of the $7.5-billion Line 3 replacement project, which would see that pipeline roughly double its current output to 760,000 barrels per day.

Decisions such as the one to allow Trans Mountain are hard because Canadians hold conflicting and passionate views.

“There’s been no consent to the projects by indigenous people”, said Derek Nepinak, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.