Good morning.
It’s Justine Hunter in Victoria, I write about B.C. politics for The Globe and Mail, which means that I often write about Alberta oil. Specifically, the path for Alberta oil to Pacific tidewater. I’ll bring you up to date on the latest in the pipeline developments over the past week, but let’s recap first why the conflict between B.C. and Alberta over oil runs so deeply:
There was Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, which faced fierce opposition from First Nations and environmentalists. Two premiers locked horns over B.C.’s demands for a “fair share” of the benefits.
In the end, the project was tanked by the federal government in 2016 but in the meantime, Kinder Morgan had started work on a project to triple the capacity of their existing line which brings oil from Edmonton to a marine terminal in Burnaby.
That project would significantly increase oil tanker traffic in B.C. waters and the backlash in B.C. was so strong, the Texas-based oil giant got cold feet. The federal government took over and finished the project under a new name, Trans Mountain, for about $34-billion – more than six times the initial budget.
Last November, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen Alberta’s energy sector, including work to build a new pipeline to the B.C. coast. That’s reignited the conflict between Canada’s two westernmost provinces.
Alberta wants to transport an additional one million barrels per day to Asian markets, a move aimed at reducing Canada’s heavy reliance on energy exports to the U.S.
Smith has expressed interest in a route across northern B.C. to one of the deep-sea ports such as Prince Rupert, which would reduce shipping time across the Pacific. She faces opposition once again from First Nations and the provincial government, who have signed a joint pact to fight any change that would allow oil tankers to load at a northern port.
That brings us to last week, when The Globe and Mail’s Robert Fife and Emma Graney reported that Ottawa is looking south for a pipeline path that might be less contentious. Federal sources said Ottawa is leaning toward a route to the Port of Vancouver.
That could diffuse opposition on the coast. The B.C. NDP government under Premier David Eby is backing further expansion of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline. Given his past opposition to Trans Mountain, it is a little surprising, but Eby is willing to accept more oil tanker traffic in the south as a trade off to protect a “fragile” consensus that allows the export of liquefied natural gas off the north coast.
The Globe’s Jeffrey Jones wrote last week that Indigenous leaders from northern B.C. went to Calgary to pressure investors to shun a potential north coast pipeline route. The goal, Haida Nation president Gaagwiis told Jeffrey, was to make sure “that everyone understands the financial and legal risks associated with pursuing” a pipeline to the north coast.
But as Emma noted in her report on Thursday, any new oil pipeline to the West Coast – north or south – would face steep challenges when it comes to engineering, cost and public buy-in. Further, she found there isn’t a clear consensus that the additional capacity is needed. “That depends on who you ask,” she wrote.
This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter, written this week by Justine Hunter. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.