{"id":276187,"date":"2025-10-04T03:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T03:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/276187\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T03:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T03:36:11","slug":"a-polite-no-b-c-premier-eby-seeks-to-avoid-a-battle-over-albertas-pipeline-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/276187\/","title":{"rendered":"A polite \u2018no\u2019: B.C. Premier Eby seeks to avoid a battle over Alberta\u2019s pipeline ambitions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

B.C. Premier David Eby called Alberta\u2019s proposed pipeline to the West Coast \u2018incredibly alarming to British Columbians.\u2019Darren Calabrese\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith<\/a> and B.C. Premier David Eby have a fundamental disagreement about whether Canada needs another oil pipeline to the West Coast. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a topic that has sparked angry exchanges between the two provinces in the past. But in this era of Team Canada co-operation, the two leaders are \u2013 at least for now \u2013 showing a concerted effort to maintain civility.<\/p>\n

Ms. Smith phoned Mr. Eby on Monday, giving him two days of advance warning before announcing that her government would file a pipeline application<\/a> to Canada\u2019s Major Projects Office. <\/p>\n

For almost 20 minutes, the two leaders talked about the proposal, but also other issues where they share mutual interests, said a source not authorized to speak about the B.C. Premier\u2019s private discussion with Ms. Smith.<\/p>\n

Enbridge CEO urges Ottawa to remove barriers to building energy infrastructure<\/a><\/p>\n

For his part, Mr. Eby avoided any direct attacks on Alberta when reporters sought his reaction to the pipeline application on Wednesday. He isn\u2019t challenging the application, but he is calling on Ottawa to maintain an oil tanker ban that would make the preferred pipeline route a non-starter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear the New Democratic Party government in B.C. does not support Alberta\u2019s proposed oil project. But there are no threats or ultimatums at this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t mistake my politeness for weakness on protecting our economy and our coast,\u201d Mr. Eby said at the Wednesday press conference. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem that we have is that Premier Smith continues to advance a project that is entirely taxpayer-funded, has no private-sector proponent, is not a real project, and is incredibly alarming to British Columbians, including First Nations along the coast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Eby said his chief concern is that opening up B.C.\u2019s North Coast to oil tanker traffic \u2013 one of the requirements for Ms. Smith\u2019s application \u2013 will undermine First Nations\u2019 support for projects that he wants developed. <\/p>\n

This summer, tankers laden with liquefied natural gas began shipping out of Kitimat, B.C.<\/a> There will be about 170 vessels a year transporting LNG to Asian markets. Meanwhile, the port of Prince Rupert is undergoing a major expansion. The federal tanker ban has been key to securing First Nations\u2019 support for those projects, Mr. Eby said.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A carrier ship docked at LNG Canada’s export facility in Kitimat, B.C., in August.Jesse Winter\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Some First Nations leaders have been unequivocal in their opposition to Alberta\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo even entertain this idea shows a profound disrespect for both First Nations law and the will of the people who live there,\u201d said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, in a Wednesday statement. <\/p>\n

Chief Marilyn Slett, president of Coastal First Nations, said in a statement the same day that there is no support from her people for a pipeline and associated tankers. \u201cThe federal government must immediately and unequivocally reaffirm the tanker ban and put this dangerous proposal to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mr. Eby served as the province\u2019s attorney-general, he led the B.C. government\u2019s legal fight against the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2017. But as Premier, he has tried to avoid stoking sentiments of alienation<\/a> in Alberta.<\/p>\n

Crucially, the B.C. Premier is seeking Ottawa\u2019s support for his province\u2019s list of potential projects that he says will help Canada\u2019s economy in the midst of the current trade war with the U.S. <\/p>\n

Reality check: The first \u2018major projects\u2019 for fast-tracking are already on the fast track<\/a><\/p>\n

The Major Projects Office is vetting several B.C.-based proposals already, including LNG Canada Phase 2.<\/p>\n

Rather than oppose Ms. Smith\u2019s favoured project, Mr. Eby is arguing that the ban on oil tankers in B.C.\u2019s northern waters is crucial to the Canadian economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have supported the tanker ban from the very beginning because it is foundational to our ability to get some major projects done,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to put that tanker ban at threat, it\u2019s not just a threat to our pristine coast that so many British Columbians, including myself, value, but it is a direct economic threat to the kind of economy that we\u2019re trying to build in the country here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strategies have varied, but British Columbia\u2019s governments have been throwing up obstacles to new oil pipelines from Alberta to the coast for more than a decade. <\/p>\n

In 2012, relations between the premiers of B.C. and Alberta became frosty<\/a> when B.C. made a series of demands, including cash compensation, in exchange for support of Enbridge Inc.\u2019s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. <\/p>\n

Campbell Clark: Alberta gets oil pipeline politics bouncing again<\/a><\/p>\n

B.C.\u2019s former premier, Christy Clark, walked out of a meeting with fellow premiers<\/a> and announced to waiting reporters that her province would not sign on to a national energy strategy unless her conditions were met. <\/p>\n

In the end, the Northern Gateway project was cancelled, not because of Ms. Clark\u2019s demands, but because the Federal Court of Appeal in 2016 quashed the federal permit<\/a> in a ruling that concluded Ottawa had failed in its duty to consult First Nations.<\/p>\n

Next up was Kinder Morgan\u2019s proposed expansion of its pipeline that carries Alberta oil to Burnaby for export. The NDP took power in B.C. in 2017 with a promise that it would use every legal tool available to try to stop that project. <\/p>\n

The dispute prompted Alberta to launch a boycott of B.C. wine<\/a> in 2018, a measure that former NDP premier John Horgan described as \u201chistrionics.\u201d<\/p>\n

As attorney-general, Mr. Eby\u2019s legal efforts ultimately failed, but only after the federal Liberal government took the extraordinary step of buying the Trans Mountain pipeline from Texas-based Kinder Morgan, after the company lost interest in fighting with environmentalists, Indigenous groups and the B.C. government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: B.C. Premier David Eby called Alberta\u2019s proposed pipeline to the West Coast \u2018incredibly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":276188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-276187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}