{"id":150659,"date":"2018-02-01T22:07:27","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T03:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=150659"},"modified":"2018-02-01T22:07:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T03:07:27","slug":"enough-is-enough-alberta-to-suspend-electricity-purchase-talks-with-b-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/01\/enough-is-enough-alberta-to-suspend-electricity-purchase-talks-with-b-c\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Enough is enough:’ Alberta to suspend electricity purchase talks with B.C"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Notley<\/a>
Notley said she told Trudeau, who’s in Edmonton for a town-hall meeting, that the federal government needs to act decisively to end the dispute.(Photo By Dave Cournoyer – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says her\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is suspending talks with British Columbia on the purchase of electricity from the western province.<\/p>\n

It’s the first step in Alberta’s fight against the B.C.\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>‘s proposal to obstruct the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline expansion project by banning increased shipments of diluted bitumen to the province’s coast.<\/p>\n

Up to $500 million annually for B.C.’s coffers hangs in the balance, Notley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re prepared to do what it takes to get this pipeline built – whatever it takes,\u201d she told a news conference Thursday after speaking with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the phone.<\/p>\n

Notley said she told Trudeau, who’s in Edmonton for a town-hall meeting, that the federal\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0needs to act decisively to end the dispute.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Edmonton talk radio station CHED earlier in the day, Trudeau said the pipeline expansion is in the national interest and will go ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat pipeline is going to get built,\u201d Trudeau said. \u201cWe will stand by our decision. We will ensure that the Kinder Morgan pipeline gets built.\u201d<\/p>\n

B.C.’s environment minister has said his minority\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0plans to ban increased shipments until it can determine that shippers are prepared and able to properly clean up a spill. He said he will establish an independent scientific advisory panel to study the issue.<\/p>\n

The move infuriated Notley, who has accused B.C. of trying to change the rules after the federal\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0gave the project the green light. B.C. has the right to regulate how any spills would be cleaned up, but can’t dictate what flows through pipelines, she said.<\/p>\n

Trudeau said\u00a0Canada<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0needs to get Alberta’s oil safely to markets other than the United States. He said the federal\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0did the research and has spent billions on spill response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kinder Morgan pipeline is not a danger to the B.C. coast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Notley said she thanked Trudeau for his assurance that the project will go ahead, but the federal\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0has to do more to ensure the pipeline’s expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not an Alberta-B.C. issue. This is a\u00a0Canada<\/em><\/strong>-B.C. issue,\u201d she said. \u201cThis kind of uncertainty is bad for investment and bad for working people<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough is enough. We need to get these things built.\u201d<\/p>\n

B.C. Premier John Horgan said his\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0consulted Alberta and Ottawa about his province’s intentions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t see what the problem is,\u201d Horgan said Thursday at a school opening north of Kelowna, B.C. \u201cIt’s within our jurisdiction to put in place regulations to protect the public interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s what we are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He downplayed any possibility of court action or sanctions by Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s nothing to take to court,\u201d Horgan said. \u201cWe are consulting with the people of B.C. It’s way too premature to talk about those sorts of issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabre-rattling doesn’t get you very far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking in Ottawa, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr wouldn’t say what\u00a0Canada<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0might do if British Columbia implements its regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s speculative,\u201d said Carr.<\/p>\n

He noted at this point, B.C. has just pledged to consult. He said the federal\u00a0government<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0heard from thousands of people before the pipeline was approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s what they have announced – an intention to consult. We have already consulted.\u201d<\/p>\n

B.C.’s proposal creates more uncertainty for Kinder Morgan’s already-delayed Trans Mountain expansion project that would nearly triple the capacity of its pipeline system to 890,000 barrels a day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says her\u00a0government\u00a0is suspending talks with British Columbia on the purchase of electricity from the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":116391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[16796,4124,13887,36696,10114],"class_list":["post-150659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-b-c-government","tag-ched","tag-federal-government","tag-natural-resources-minister-jim-carr","tag-rachel-notley","mauthors-colette-derworiz","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}