Notley, Horgan looking for popularity with pipeline stances

If it really wants Trans Mountain expanded it will have to risk alienating B.C.’s environmentalists.

“Instead, global traders will literally buy future oil by the boatload, then book terminal time at any deepwater ocean port like the LOOP, anywhere in the world, to embark with two million barrels in a single cargo”.

The pipeline would massively increase the countries export capabilities to Asia. The entrance to the Canadian High Commission in Trafalgar Square.

“As the Squamish Nation said earlier this week, they have not given consent to have this activity in their territory”, he said. “We are absolutely focused” on making progress “this construction season”, said Trudeau.

Moreover, the Trans Mountain pipeline has been the subject of 14 court challenges, so far.

The B.C. government has opposed the expansion project since it formed government.

“We engaged in financial discussions with the pipeline owner, Kinder Morgan”, he said. The Trudeau government is also said to be considering threatening BC with financial penalties if it doesn’t quickly abandon any and all objections to the pipeline project.

“The courts are going to weigh in on the side of local interests, provincial interests on the side of NIMBYism to prevent national development”, he said. But, she said, Trans Mountain is vital to develop a path for Alberta resources to get to Asia.

Carr said comforting clarifications were made after the call.

Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Notley said Kean’s comments don’t jibe with the conversations she and her officials have had with Kinder Morgan.

Although Trudeau’s Liberal government could invoke emergency powers to ensure the project goes ahead, that would most likely anger voters in B.C. and cost the Liberals support in a federal election in October 2019.

“What the government of British Columbia is doing undermines the national interest, divides the country, thwarts the rule of law and severely undercuts our ability to attract sorely needed investment to Canada”, he said.

Also Wednesday, the CEO of the pipeline’s builder, Kinder Morgan said the events of recent days have reinforced his concerns about the viability of the $7.4-billion project.

“It’s become clear this particular investment may be untenable for a private party to undertake”.

Hopefully readers will pay more attention to what is going on in both the federal and provincial governments. The problem: B.C. political opposition.

“If she wants to invest in a pipeline that’s her business”, Horgan said.

According to the project’s overview, the expansion will create a system similar to an existing 714-mile pipeline in Canada between Strathcona County in Alberta and Burnaby in British Columbia. They are anxious about pipeline leaks or tanker spills, but even half of Vancouverites finally support the line if safety considerations are addressed.

And maybe that partly explains Trudeau’s pro-Trans Mountain pipeline stance.

As a matter of fact, I can picture a Toronto Star headline along the lines of “Great and glorious Trudeau Saves Canada with Brilliant Oil Pipeline Plan!”

Squamish Nation Coun. Dustin Rivers, who goes by his traditional name Khelsilem, said his community has lost trust in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau because he did not require Kinder Morgan to go through a new environmental assessment process.

“This project was approved over 16 months ago”.

After all, if you’ve watched the prime minister on the news lately, you’d swear to God that he truly supports the idea of ramming an oil pipeline through an army of green protesters.