TD Economics says the success of a new west coast oil pipeline will reply on more exports to Asia, where demand may flatten with the takeup of clean energy. <\/p>\n
OTTAWA – The federal government is advancing the process to designate a proposed oil\u00a0pipeline\u00a0to the West Coast as a \u201cnational interest\u201d project.<\/p>\n
Naming a project in the national interest under the Building Canada Act allows the government to fast-track approvals and skirt some environmental laws.<\/p>\n
A notice published in the Canada Gazette on Aug. 1 sets a Sept. 18 deadline to submit comments on the national interest designation.<\/p>\n
The proposed\u00a0pipeline\u00a0project has been referred already to the government\u2019s\u00a0major\u00a0projects\u00a0office, with the Alberta government listed as the proponent. The\u00a0pipeline\u00a0would be owned by Trans Mountain, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and Pembina\u00a0Pipeline\u00a0Corporation.<\/p>\n
Pembina has a 10 per cent ownership stake in the construction, with an option to purchase an additional 10 per cent once the\u00a0pipeline\u00a0is operational.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s notice says Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc will work with the Alberta and B.C. governments on the project while consultations with Indigenous communities are underway.<\/p>\n
Julia Levin, an associate director at Environmental Defence, criticized the government for quietly beginning this process during a long weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the weekend, while Canadians across the country are dealing with raging wildfires and the aftermath of severe flooding and heat waves, Prime Minister (Mark) Carney quietly moved forward with his oil\u00a0pipeline\u00a0plans,\u201d Levin said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no wonder he didn\u2019t want to draw attention to this environmentally and economically risky project, and the breakneck speed at which he wants to get it approved without due oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n
NDP Leader Avi Lewis called the\u00a0pipeline\u00a0project \u201ccorporate welfare on a surreal scale\u201d and pointed out that it is not being backed primarily by the private sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Canadians across this land, it is a kick in the teeth to call this climate bomb of a project \u2018in the national interest,\u2019\u201d Lewis said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is in big oil\u2019s interest, for sure. But it doesn\u2019t do a damn thing for people struggling with the cost of food and housing, increased costs from privatized health care, and of course the daily anxiety of climate breakdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s definition of \u201cnational interest\u201d includes\u00a0projects\u00a0that can strengthen \u201cCanada\u2019s autonomy, resilience and security,\u201d provide economic benefits, have a high likelihood of success, advance Indigenous interests and contribute to \u201cclean growth\u201d and meeting Canada\u2019s climate change goals.<\/p>\n
The proposed\u00a0pipeline\u00a0is a central component of an energy agreement between the federal and Alberta governments.<\/p>\n
The roughly 1,250-kilometre\u00a0pipeline\u00a0would carry upwards of one million barrels of crude oil from Bruderheim, Alta. to a port near Delta, B.C. for shipment to international markets.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives helped the government pass the Building Canada Act more than a year ago and the government has so far moved three\u00a0projects\u00a0toward the national interest designation.<\/p>\n
Those\u00a0projects\u00a0are the Grays Bay road and port project in Nunavut, the Mackenzie Valley Highway in the Northwest Territories and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization\u2019s deep geological repository in northern Ontario.<\/p>\n
David Baxter, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n
With files from Nick Murray in Ottawa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TD Economics says the success of a new west coast oil pipeline will reply on more exports to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[525,17,3952,290,3089,113,3090],"class_list":["post-155776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-justice","tag-national","tag-oilgas","tag-politics","tag-utilities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}