Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians we could eat his climate action cake and have the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion too, approving the twinning of the TMX bitumen corridor from Edmonton to Vancouver.
“We don’t see these goals as irreconcilable, we see them as complimentary,” Trudeau announced at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. This a day after Parliament declared a climate emergency due to hydrocarbon energy consumption.
Trudeau promised “to have shovels in the ground this construction season” and that “every dollar Canada earns from this project will be invested in our clean energy transition…up to $500 million a year.”
The prime minister said he was open to negotiating “an equity stake or revenue sharing” agreements with Indigenous groups and that “there was no limit on Indigenous participation.”
“It could be 100 percent (equity),” he said.
Forty-three First Nations and other Indigenous groups currently back Trans Mountain, while only a dozen joined the Tsleil-Waututh’s Federal Court of Appeal challenge over insufficient consultation in the National Energy Board’s decision to twin the pipeline.
Before the challenge, the Houston-based energy giant boasted $400 million in ‘Mutual Benefit Agreements’ (MBAs) with First Nations who are onside.
After the Tsliel-Waututh federal court undertaking began at the beginning of last year, the Liberal government announced it would buy the entire stake from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion last May.
On August 30, 2018, the federal court quashed NEB’s approval, the same day 99 percent of the Houston Texas firm’s shareholders voted to sell its Trans Mountain interests to Canada.
And now Canada is looking for a buyer. Tsleil-Waututh Nation Chief Leah Wilson told CTV News before Trudeau’s announcement her group is not interested “and we’ll do whatever it takes to protect our (territory).”
However three Indigenous groups have made serious overtures for an ownership stake; the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group of First Nation’s on the 1150 kilometre right of way, the Alberta Iron Coalition and Project Reconciliation, a third consortium Indigenous business interests.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer put his press release out hours before what many considered a done-deal heading into next federal election.
“Today’s cabinet decision gets us no closer to having this vital, job-creating protect than we were when it was first approved two and a half years ago,” said Scheer.
During Trudeau’s opening remarks, he reiterated that Canada’s primary customer of 99 percent of Alberta’s oil remained the United States.
“It doesn’t make any sense to sell our resources at a discount,” he said. “We basically have only one customer for our resources, the United States…we can only make choices when we have choices.”
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Alberta to hold referendum if pipeline not built
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has declared that if the Trans Mountain Pipeline is not built by Trudeau’s government, he will hold a referendum on ending equalization payments.
The comment comes after Liberal Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough suggested that equalization payments were on the table for discussions, according to Global News:
“We want to make sure everyone is being treated equally and fairly, and if people aren’t feeling like they’re being treated that way, then, of course, we are going to have to have these really important conversations.”
While many in Alberta are opposed to the equalization payments since Alberta hasn’t properly recovered from the 2014 oil price slump, Alberta receives billions of dollars in other payments from the federal government.
Kenney has long demanded a change to the equalization payment process. He believes provinces that are hit with economic slumps could use the money for themselves instead of equalization.
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Trudeau Liberals to comply with Trans Mountain pipeline demands
In response to increasing criticism and outrage from Western Canada, the new Liberal minority government has decided that it’s in their (and the rest of Canada’s) best interests to push through with the Trans Mountain pipeline.
After losing every single seat in both Alberta and Saskatchewan, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has dialled back his climate policy rhetoric and opted for a more nuanced approach to balance the green push with realistic economic policies.
On October 23, he told a press conference that he will begin his second term as prime minister by working to ensure that oil producers can sell their product abroad at fair prices by moving forward with the pipeline. When asked why his parliament failed to win seats and represent Western Canada, he said that why isn’t the central question but how can the federal government mend the disconnect between West and East.
“We made a decision to move forward on the pipeline because it was in the interest of Canada to do so because the environment and the economy need to go together. We will be continuing with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion,” Trudeau said.
“Albertans and people in Saskatchewan have faced very difficult years over these past few years because of the global commodity prices, because of the challenges they are facing. For a long time, they weren’t able to get their resources to markets other than the U.S. We are moving forward to solve those challenges.”
According to CBC, the 1,150-kilometre pipeline expansion would roughly “triple the existing pipeline’s capacity to 890,000 barrels a day,” and would allow Alberta to ship oil through B.C. to international markets such as Asia.
The Liberal government has also stated its plans to use the additional oil revenues to transition to cleaner sources of energy, predicting up to $500 million for green energy projects.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said that the plan to extend the pipeline isn’t merely a ploy to mollify Alberta and assist negotiations between the minority government and the provinces. Rather, Morneau says that balancing the economy with green energy initiatives is a crucial part of the Liberal’s transitionary measures.
“We purchased [the pipeline] for a reason,” said Morneau. “We now see how it can help us accelerate our clean energy transition by putting any revenues that we get from it into a transition to clean energy. We think that is the best way we can move forward in our current context.”
According to CTV News, construction for the expansion is expected to be complete by the middle of 2022. The Liberal government has forecasted taking up to $125 million in revenue from Trans Mountain Canada each year up to the expansion’s completion and the $500 million each year after.
“My expectation is that we have much common ground between the other parties that have been elected to the next Parliament,” said Morneau.
“We will be seeking consensus on how we can move forward on that common ground. This project we’ve already moved forward on. It’s one that we’ve said that we’re moving forward on, we’ve actually already gone through that process.”
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Alberta government has no plans to see Greta Thunberg during her visit
Alberta’s Provincial government has said they will not do anything to arrange a meeting with infamous climate change activist Greta Thunberg. However, Environment Minister Jason Nixon hopes that Thunberg takes time to learn about the province’s oil and gas industry and all the steps they’ve taken to address climate change.
“I think when you look at some of Miss Thunberg’s comments, she doesn’t understand our province, that she doesn’t understand the reality that to accomplish climate change goals worldwide, we need Alberta as part of that solution,” Nixon told reporters Tuesday.
“We have the most
environmentally friendly place in the world to produce oil and gas
products.”
However, some members of the provincial government, specifically NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley, have expressed their discontent over the United Conservative Party’s decision to not meet with the climate activist, saying that Thunberg is an important part of a movement that needs to be acknowledged.
“While I obviously don’t agree with every prescription that Greta is proposing, I definitely do agree that we have a (climate change) problem and we need to take that problem seriously,” Notley said.
“We need to be leaders. We don’t need to be cowards. What’s happening right now, by blaming everybody else, our premier is being a coward.”
Alberta is only the last stop on a larger North American tour that Thunberg has decided to undertake. This time around, rather than going to metropolitan areas where more people will agree with her, she has chosen to head straight to the places where oil production is great, such as Alberta and Montana.
Her expected arrival has also sparked a prospective protest from pro-energy Albertans, specifically a group called United We Roll!, who have called her climate alarmism a giant hoax.
“We’re going to continue to fight for Canadian energy until we get pipelines in the ground.
“And we’re going to rally against any climate activist who comes out and pretends they know more about our environment than we do in Alberta, about our oil and gas industry,” said Glen Carritt, the United We Roll! organizer.
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Trudeau dodges answering if Canada is on its last pipeline in debate
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was asked by CBC’s Rosemary Barton, in a longwinded question, if his government’s $4.5 billion purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline would be the last pipeline he would approve.
“Last fall the United Nations international panel on climate change stressed the need to act quickly to limit further global warming,” started Barton. “A report from Environment Canada says this country is warming twice as fast as the global average. You say you are committed to combatting climate change but your government proceeded with the purchase and approval of a new pipeline to the west coast. Given the timeline, and given what is at stake, should Canada not be moving more quickly away from further development of the oil and gas sector, and to that end, should the expansion be the last pipeline.”
Trudeau gave a similary longwinded answer.
“We absolutely have to move faster. We absolutely have to do more. And that’s why we put forward an ambitious plan to continue—that is reasonable, that is doable, and is going to make sure that we get to, not just surpass our 2030 targets, but go beyond it,” said Trudeau.
“We’re banning single-use plastics, we’re putting a price on pollution right across the country, and we’re fighting those Conservative premiers who do not want to do their part to fight climate change. We recognize that transition to clean energy will not happen overnight. And while we do, we should have less oil by rail, and we need to get to new markets so we can invest all the resources, all the money coming in from this pipeline into that green energy transition into fighting climate change. I know that’s a big piece of the way we move forward, how we invest in the new economy in that transition, and that’s what we’ve done. The choice tonight, do we pick a government that doesn’t believe in climate change or in fighting it, or do we continue on the track we are…” Trudeau said before getting cut off because his time was up.
“Okay, got to end it. I noticed you didn’t answer that last part of that question,” Barton interjected.
Environmentalists have criticized Trudeau for supporting the oil industry, while gas and oil proponents have claimed that the government overspent on buying the pipeline and that the government should not be in the business of buy pipelines.
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