4The passing of the Trans Mountain Expansion wasn’t enough for local dignitaries, who believe Canadians deserve more answers than just the approval of the project.
The Government of Canada gave the Trans Mountain Expansion the green light for the second time on Tuesday, June 21, after previously approving it in November 2016.
The expansion, which would see the twinning of the existing 1,150-kilometre pipeline from Strathcona County to Burnaby, BC, would increase the pipeline’s current 300,000 barrels per day capacity to 890,000.
“It would have been crazy for them to have rejected that second approval... When they announced the approval, they should have been able to give very concrete and clear details to Canadians about the next steps for the Trans Mountain Expansion,” stressed Shadow Minister for Natural Resources and Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs.
The simple assent of the project isn’t enough for Stubbs.
She expressed the need for a plan to get the pipeline built.
“What struck me, and what I think should concern the people of the Lakeland, every Albertan in particular, but also all Canadians, the vast majority of which support the Trans Mountain, is they can still give no concrete start date for construction. They failed to give any details about the timeline for construction, they failed to give a completion and service date, and that’s all important, because based on the original plan, the Trans Mountain Expansion should have been completed and operating within the next six months or the end of 2019.”
According to Stubbs, “there are dozens of approvals, permits, and authorizations from federal government departments and agencies,” that remain outstanding.
“They failed the day they announced the approval to give a timeline or any finite details on when they will actually secure all of those government authorizations and permits that are still required for construction to start,” she continued.
The final costs have been estimated at over $14-billion, a price tag the federal government picked up when they purchased the pipeline from Kinder Morgan in May 2018.
Stubbs noted this was another area the Canadian government failed to confirm.
”We’re wondering how long taxpayers are going to be on the hook for this, and why the government can’t present a plan and a budget to show Canadians exactly how much it’s going to cost. That’s why they should have also been able to answer the questions about specifically what their next steps are in terms of long-term ownership and operation of the pipeline, and what that’s going to look like,” Stubbs emphasized.
MD of Bonnyville Reeve Greg Sawchuk felt while the approval of the expansion is a good sign, he isn’t overly confident the federal government will be able to follow through.
“I only say that because of what we’ve seen in the House of Commons and the Senate in the past couple of days, where Bill C-69 and C-48 went through, basically unencumbered, and with that, what they’re signaling to the oil industry is that yes, they’re going to allow this pipeline to go through, but they’re not going to be supporting it a whole lot along the way, as well, making it incredibly difficult for any more of their product to make it to market.”
Town of Bonnyville Mayor Gene Sobolewski agreed, “I’m very reserved. I’m happy that they’re looking at moving forward with that and elated they want to start putting shovels in the ground right away, but given the atmosphere and the way they were behaving in 2016, and currently in 2019, I’m somewhat reserved. The reason I say 2019 is because we still have bills C-69 and C-48 hanging over our heads, that’s anti-pipeline and anti-oil development.”
Now that the project’s been approved, local officials are concerned with the hurdles it could continue to face along the way.
Between legal challenges and anti-energy activists, Stubbs stressed the federal government needs to show Canadians they will stand behind the Trans Mountain Expansion.
Using their indigenous consultations as an example, she explained how the federal Liberals could once again face legal challenges from indigenous communities that are against the pipeline.
”Canadians are sitting here with their fingers crossed and holding their breath, hoping that this time, the Liberals’ consultation process will hold up,” she stated. “If it doesn’t, what will the Liberals do as a response? Will they delay it for months like they did last time?”
”All of this uncertainty and legal risk still exists for the Trans Mountain Expansion,” continued Stubbs.
Sawchuk agreed those are some of the issues that lie ahead for the project.
He said, “I think we’re going to end up with local groups, environmental groups, the protests will begin... That in itself is going to cause delays, and as far as what legal challenges they will come up with, I’m not sure.”
Just a few days after approving the Trans Mountain Expansion, the federal government also passed bills C-69, an act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, and C-48, an act respecting the regulation of vessels transporting crude oil.
“In terms of the world market for oil, what’s going on in Canada in regards to our ability to move our oil within our own country, we’ve become a laughing stock. There’s no country in the world that’s treating its oil sector like Canada is,” Sobolewski said about the bills. “We really have to take a hard look at what we’re doing here in Canada.”
Sawchuk stated, “I think it’s ludicrous a federal government would give up on their own natural resources when you don’t see any other country in the world doing that.”
Although local dignitaries are cautiously optimistic in regards to the Trans Mountain Expansion, they did note should the project go ahead, it could highly benefit their communities.
“I think that for our area, a lot of people are waiting for the economy to recover. It’s going to take some time. We have three important pipelines, this is one of them, the Trans Mountain, but we also have Line 3 and the Keystone Pipeline. Both projects have been painfully slow to get going and they’ve all been facing these hurdles… Hopefully, we can get these three pipes up and flowing with oil. I think you’re going to see a tremendous lift in the economy in the Lakeland area,” expressed Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.
Albertans won’t be the only ones profiting from the Trans Mountain Expansion, however.
“We’re a resource-based country and that’s created a tremendous amount of wealth for everybody in Canada. Let’s hope we can get this pipe in the ground and get foreign investment back in Canada for our oil patch. Our oil companies are selling at a tremendous discount for the value of the product that they have in the ground and in reserves. Let’s hope we can turn this ship around and get going here,” Copeland said.
Sobolewski added, “It will allow some of those companies that have been holding off on capital investment and expansion, they’ll begin to start moving forward with the investment in expanding their operations such that we can utilize the additional capacity in that pipeline... By the time they’re finished constructing the pipeline, the construction on expansion plans, let’s say for example Imperial or CNRL, they’ll be completed around the same time and they will be able to utilize and capitalize on that additional capacity right away. That’s my hope. That will benefit the local economy and move things forward, but given the atmosphere and the way the government has behaved on those previous bills, I’m not exactly doing the happy dance until I see oil flowing through the pipe.”
