\n<\/p>\n
The governments of Canada and the province of Alberta will move forward on a major new oil pipeline after the pair announced a plan to ease concerns of British Columbia and First Nations on the Pacific coast.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s prime minister, Mark Carney, shuttled between British Columbia and Alberta on Thursday to announce more than C$150bn in new investments in both provinces, part of a broader project of reducing trade with the United States and expanding his country\u2019s presence in overseas markets.<\/p>\n
Leaning on the familiar framing of a \u201cmore dangerous and divided world\u201d, Carney pledged to strengthen domestic industries, saying in Vancouver that the country needed to \u201cmove faster, build bigger and work together\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carney promised billions for a port expansion in Vancouver, expanded power infrastructure for a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and investments in new protections for the endangered southern resident killer whale.<\/p>\n
But the marquee project is a new pipeline that follows the route of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline before diverting at the end to a new terminal. The project will transport 1m barrels a day, according to the Alberta government.<\/p>\n
Carney said Canada and Alberta would be \u201cequal partners\u201d in the pipeline project, and there would be \u201ca meaningful ownership stake for Indigenous communities\u201d. The two governments would also work to achieve \u201csubstantial\u201d methane reductions. Consultations will begin immediately with Indigenous communities, provinces and territories.<\/p>\n
Carney said his government would leave in place a longstanding federal ban on tankers loading or unloading oil from British Columbia\u2019s north coast \u2013 an environmental safeguard that First Nations have long said is non-negotiable.<\/p>\n
Alberta\u2019s premier, Danielle Smith, who had long advocated the northern route \u2013 which would have required overturning the tanker ban \u2013 said on Wednesday the planned southern route represented \u201cthe fastest, most cost-effective path to expanding Canada\u2019s energy exports\u201d. Smith is also under growing pressure from a separatist element in her province to demonstrate that Alberta can sign major energy deals with the federal government.<\/p>\n
The shift from a northern pipeline to a southern route reflects both a major shift from Alberta \u2013 and a recognition by governments that Indigenous opposition would dramatically slow any new project.<\/p>\n
British Columbia\u2019s premier, David Eby, said his government would not fight the pipeline after they \u201cfound out the hard way\u201d when they lost a court battle over the original expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. He said the new deal had strong safeguards and residents would be \u201cfairly compensated for the environmental risks we would take on any new pipeline project\u201d.<\/p>\n
Marilyn Slett, president of the Coastal First Nations and elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, called the announcement a \u201cgood day\u201d following news that the tanker ban would remain in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBritish Columbians, Canadians and the First Nations who call this place home want this region to remain protected. There is no technology that can clean up an oil spill at sea, and a single oil spill could destroy our way of life,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cProtecting our coast is not a barrier to economic prosperity, it is the source of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A number of First Nations had previously pledged to withdraw support for multibillion-dollar LNG projects if the 50-year tanker ban was lifted.<\/p>\n
The Climate Action Network said it agreed with Carney\u2019s framing that Canada was in a \u201ctreacherous moment of geopolitical instability\u201d but said climate change \u2013 not trade partners \u2013 was the biggest source of instability. \u201cContinuing to expand fossil fuel production when Canadians are already living with climate chaos is simply dangerous,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n
Expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline represents one of largest and most expensive infrastructure cost overruns in Canadian history. While the pipeline has proven strategically beneficial, it is unclear if taxpayers will ever recoup their investment. \u201cIf this was a smart economic venture, if there was any kind of reasonable return on investment to be made, a private company or companies would have put up the cash,\u201d Chris Severson-Baker, executive director of the Pembina Institute, an independent Canadian clean energy thinktank, said in a statement. \u201cInstead, Albertan and Canadian taxpayers will now shoulder the cost of 90% of this project \u2013 which will likely run into the tens of billions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The governments of Canada and the province of Alberta will move forward on a major new oil pipeline after the pair announced a plan to ease concerns of British Columbia and First Nations on the Pacific coast. Canada\u2019s prime minister, Mark Carney, shuttled between British Columbia and Alberta on Thursday to announce more than C$150bn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[24926,318,2974,3799,500,868,4697,12682],"class_list":{"0":"post-50911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-c150bn","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-concerns","11":"tag-ease","12":"tag-nations","13":"tag-pipeline","14":"tag-pledged","15":"tag-proceed"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}