{"id":70093,"date":"2016-02-04T20:20:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=70093"},"modified":"2016-02-04T20:20:08","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T01:20:08","slug":"a-day-in-alberta-doesnt-change-prime-ministerss-position-on-energy-east-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/02\/04\/a-day-in-alberta-doesnt-change-prime-ministerss-position-on-energy-east-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"A day in Alberta doesn’t change prime ministers’s position on Energy East pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Prime<\/a>
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Notley hold a joint press conference in Edmonton.
(Photo courtesy of the Prime Minister’s website<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CALGARY\u2014Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a sympathetic ear to major players in Canada’s oilpatch Thursday, but didn’t provide any assurances on the fate of the pipelines Alberta so desperately wants to move its product to the coasts.<\/p>\n

Trudeau, federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley took part in one-hour roundtables with oil and natural gas producers and their suppliers.<\/p>\n

The province’s oil sector is looking for signals that Trudeau is serious about seeing pipelines built that will move its commodity to where it can be shipped to foreign markets.<\/p>\n

The Energy East project is seen as a key plank, but the controversial pipeline has drawn the ire of many along its route through Central Canada to the Atlantic coast.<\/p>\n

The prime minister was asked after the meeting if he told the industry that the federal government would approve Energy East if approved by the National Energy Board.<\/p>\n

Trudeau repeated his criticism of the previous Conservative government and its politicization of pipelines. He said he would not do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not going to prejudge or shortcut the NEB process as it goes forward,\u201d Trudeau said. \u201cIt’s important that we have confidence in our regulators. It’s important they do their job and we’re going to allow them to do their job without political interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president and CEO of Suncor Energy (TSX:SU), Steve Williams, said the meeting with Trudeau was encouraging, but there were no guarantees about pipeline approvals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think assurances is too strong a word. I think what we agreed was that we understood the need for them and we’re all going to go away and work towards that end,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Mark Salkeld, president of Petroleum Services Association of Canada, also found a reason for optimism after the meeting. He said industry players asked Trudeau to \u201cbe our champion\u201d because energy is Canada’s economic engine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren’t looking for handouts. We weren’t looking for incentives to get us through to the next stage. We’re looking for things that will put our employees back to work,\u201d said Salkeld.<\/p>\n

Action is needed quickly, Salkeld added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s critical. I mean this industry is essentially on its knees right now in Canada. If we don’t get things moving relatively quickly there’s going to be a generational loss,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd said Trudeau was paying close attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had a great conversation that talked about the urgency of some of the challenges we’re facing,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was no particular ask (from the participants).\u201d<\/p>\n

As he did in Edmonton on Wednesday, the prime minister continued to signal that changes are coming to make employment insurance easier to get for laid-off Albertans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working very hard, the minister of Employment is looking into it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know this was a commitment we made through the election campaign to strengthen EI to make it more responsive to people who actually need it … and now Alberta is facing some real challenges in needing it and we’re going to make sure that it’s there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CALGARY\u2014Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a sympathetic ear to major players in Canada’s oilpatch Thursday, but didn’t provide any assurances …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business","category-news-ca","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70093","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=70093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}