B.C. Premier John Horgan says his government will continue pursuing their reference question in the B.C. Court of Appeal, despite the federal government announcing they are buying the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Canadian finance minister, Bill Morneau, announced today that the federal government will be spending $4.5-billion to buy the pipeline, with plans to sell it in the future once it has been built. This comes two days before Kinder Morgan’s self-imposed deadline of May 31 to have certainty in the feasibility of the project.
Horgan said since the reference question did not deal with a particular party, the federal government being involved in the project does not change the validity of the question.
“I will continue to do my best to protect B.C.’s interest by ensuring that our coast, our water and our land [are] kept pristine so that our economy can continue to grow,” Horgan said. “I will continue to work for the people of British Columbia with the full force of my efforts within to courts and within the rule of law. I believe that it is appropriate for us to continue down that road despite the decision by the federal government today.”
Horgan said his main concern remains protecting B.C. from the risk of a potential oil spill, and that he spoke with the Prime Minister about the provinces stance this morning.
“It does change it from a federally approved project to a federally undertaken project, but the reference case which we talked about here not that long ago did not speak to a specific project, it spoke to the transportation of diluted bitumen through British Columbia by rail or by pipe,” Horgan said. “Our reference case remains, I said as much to the Prime Minister this morning and there was no comment from him on that.”
Horgan said he understand there will likely be protests following this announcement and he hopes any protesters will follow the law when expressing their opposition to this announcement.
“Many British Columbians feel very passionately about this project and I encourage them to continue to express their disappointment within the rule of law,” Horgan said. “I believe that all British Columbians have the right to exercise freedom of speech in our great country and people should do that free of harassment but they should also be mindful that we do live in a country that is governed by the rule of law.”
Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May said the price stated by the federal government only covers part of what they will need to spend for the pipeline.
“$4.5-billion is to buy the existing assets that were built originally by Trans Mountain and were bought in the early part of the 2000s by Kinder Morgan,” May said. “The building of the expansion is not part of that $4.5-billion. That’s on top of it.”
BC Liberals party leader Andrew Wilkinson says the federal government should not have needed to step in and buy the Trans Mountain pipeline project, and that the $4.5-billion price tag will likely rise.
“It’s $4.5-billion to buy the existing assets,” Wikinson said. “Plus the $7.4-billion for the expansion project. This is a huge federal investment that didn’t need to be made. It should be made by the private sector but instead we have it being paid for by tax payers.”
“This is a sad day for British Columbia when Premier Horgan and the NDP have totally failed to serve the interests of British Columbia and the federal government stepped in to spend $12-billion of tax payers money to buy an existing pipeline and to plan to build another pipeline,” Wilkinson said. “This is all totally unnecessary and it shows that kicking them in the shins accomplishes nothing. “
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Aaron Wudrick said this move is a bad move for future large projects in Canada.
“This decision represents both a colossal failure of the Trudeau government to enforce the law of the land, and a massive, unnecessary financial burden on Canadian taxpayers,” Wudrick said in the statement. “This move sets a terrible precedent and signals to other prospective investors that large projects such as pipelines cannot be built by private industry in Canada.”
-With files from Lisa Best