VICTORIA - For supporters of Alberta’s Enbridge pipeline project, the quest for political support here in B.C. started on a bad footing Monday and got worse as the day went on.
First out of the gate was John Cummins, leader of the B.C. Conservatives and the keenest supporter of the pipeline among the province’s main political parties.
But Cummins, already on the record as insisting that the line pass muster on the environmental front, announced a new condition for supporting Enbridge or any other proposal to pipe oil across B.C. for export to Asian markets.
“B.C. should be compensated for having western Canadian oil cross our province,” the 8 a.m. press release quoted Cummins.
“A new B.C. Conservative government will enter into negotiations with the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan to develop a benefit sharing structure for western Canadian oil bound for West Coast export,” it continued. “I am confident that through reasoned and transparent negotiations a fair deal can be reached that benefits B.C.”
Whether through good guessing or a timely leak, Cummins had anticipated one of the key conditions that the B.C. Liberals would be announcing two hours later as a prerequisite for them to support Enbridge and other heavy oil pipelines.
The Liberals said they would not even consider going along unless five preconditions were addressed, including that “B.C. receives a fair share of the fiscal and economic benefits of a proposed heavy oil project that reflects the level, degree and nature of the risk borne by the province, the environment and taxpayers.”
Details, as with the Conservatives, subject to negotiation.
Those back-to-back declarations put the province’s two centre-right parties on approximately the same page in seeking a bigger piece of the action. Still, from the reaction in Alberta, you’d think the B.C. Liberals (and by extension the Conservatives) were guilty of constitutional high treason.
A pound of flesh. A shakedown. An attempt to rewrite the “fundamental fiscal arrangements of Confederation,” as Alberta Premier Alison Redford had it.
Premier Christy Clark, no fan of Redford from an earlier encounter, lost no time matching rhetorical swords with her Alberta counterpart.
“I think it’s a little unreasonable to suggest that I’m trying to destroy Confederation. I’m only trying to get B.C.’s fair share out of this project and make sure we’re protecting our environment. It’s as simple as that,” she told my colleague Jonathan Fowlie. “It doesn’t have to be some massive project to reopen the Constitution for heaven’s sake. That’s just silly.”
But if Redford was horrified by the notion of having to share the proceeds from her province’s bitumen with an unwelcoming neighbour, then she ought to give a thought to the province’s other major political leader, Adrian Dix.
Dix wouldn’t consider supporting Enbridge on any terms. He’d do everything in his power to kill it outright. In anticipation of winning the next provincial election, he’s already got a legal team working on his options.
The New Democrats readily dismissed Clark’s revised stance this week as too little, too late. Still, I expect they welcomed the prospect that the B.C. Liberals were also looking into ways to stall the project or make it so costly to go ahead that the company gives up on it.
When asked about those options this week, B.C. officials said the project needs some 60 permits from the province, plus a power supply from BC Hydro. They didn’t mention, though others have, more hardball options.
“A province can put hurdles in the way if they really choose to do so,” as Neil McCrank, the former chair of the Alberta utilities board told Nathan Vanderklippe of the Globe and Mail newspaper earlier this month. “A provincial government has authority with respect to environmental components within a jurisdiction.”
B.C. could toughen the regulatory burden for pipelines, requiring tunnels wherever the route crosses a watercourse. It could impose public hearings in all communities that could be affected by tanker traffic.
Some have suggested that the federal government could override the provincial authority and ram the pipeline through B.C., with or without support from Victoria.
But the province could challenge unilateral federal action in court. Other provinces — Quebec, which fought and won a long battle with Newfoundland over electricity transmission, jumps to mind — might well join B.C. in taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
One of the most damning passages in Monday’s report from the province faulted the federal government and the company for not living up to court-imposed requirements to consult first nations and accommodate their interests. On that basis alone, first nations could probably tie up the project in the courts for a generation.
Besides, I can’t see Ottawa taking on the fight in political terms. “It is impossible to imagine that this project could go ahead, through British Columbia, over the objections of the government of the province,” as Clark put it. “It’s just impossible to imagine.”
Indeed, after this week’s developments in the political realm, it is hard to imagine this project going ahead on any basis.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Vaughn Palmer
First out of the gate was John Cummins, leader of the B.C. Conservatives and the keenest supporter of the pipeline among the province’s main political parties.
But Cummins, already on the record as insisting that the line pass muster on the environmental front, announced a new condition for supporting Enbridge or any other proposal to pipe oil across B.C. for export to Asian markets.
“B.C. should be compensated for having western Canadian oil cross our province,” the 8 a.m. press release quoted Cummins.
“A new B.C. Conservative government will enter into negotiations with the governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan to develop a benefit sharing structure for western Canadian oil bound for West Coast export,” it continued. “I am confident that through reasoned and transparent negotiations a fair deal can be reached that benefits B.C.”
Whether through good guessing or a timely leak, Cummins had anticipated one of the key conditions that the B.C. Liberals would be announcing two hours later as a prerequisite for them to support Enbridge and other heavy oil pipelines.
The Liberals said they would not even consider going along unless five preconditions were addressed, including that “B.C. receives a fair share of the fiscal and economic benefits of a proposed heavy oil project that reflects the level, degree and nature of the risk borne by the province, the environment and taxpayers.”
Details, as with the Conservatives, subject to negotiation.
Those back-to-back declarations put the province’s two centre-right parties on approximately the same page in seeking a bigger piece of the action. Still, from the reaction in Alberta, you’d think the B.C. Liberals (and by extension the Conservatives) were guilty of constitutional high treason.
A pound of flesh. A shakedown. An attempt to rewrite the “fundamental fiscal arrangements of Confederation,” as Alberta Premier Alison Redford had it.
Premier Christy Clark, no fan of Redford from an earlier encounter, lost no time matching rhetorical swords with her Alberta counterpart.
“I think it’s a little unreasonable to suggest that I’m trying to destroy Confederation. I’m only trying to get B.C.’s fair share out of this project and make sure we’re protecting our environment. It’s as simple as that,” she told my colleague Jonathan Fowlie. “It doesn’t have to be some massive project to reopen the Constitution for heaven’s sake. That’s just silly.”
But if Redford was horrified by the notion of having to share the proceeds from her province’s bitumen with an unwelcoming neighbour, then she ought to give a thought to the province’s other major political leader, Adrian Dix.
Dix wouldn’t consider supporting Enbridge on any terms. He’d do everything in his power to kill it outright. In anticipation of winning the next provincial election, he’s already got a legal team working on his options.
The New Democrats readily dismissed Clark’s revised stance this week as too little, too late. Still, I expect they welcomed the prospect that the B.C. Liberals were also looking into ways to stall the project or make it so costly to go ahead that the company gives up on it.
When asked about those options this week, B.C. officials said the project needs some 60 permits from the province, plus a power supply from BC Hydro. They didn’t mention, though others have, more hardball options.
“A province can put hurdles in the way if they really choose to do so,” as Neil McCrank, the former chair of the Alberta utilities board told Nathan Vanderklippe of the Globe and Mail newspaper earlier this month. “A provincial government has authority with respect to environmental components within a jurisdiction.”
B.C. could toughen the regulatory burden for pipelines, requiring tunnels wherever the route crosses a watercourse. It could impose public hearings in all communities that could be affected by tanker traffic.
Some have suggested that the federal government could override the provincial authority and ram the pipeline through B.C., with or without support from Victoria.
But the province could challenge unilateral federal action in court. Other provinces — Quebec, which fought and won a long battle with Newfoundland over electricity transmission, jumps to mind — might well join B.C. in taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
One of the most damning passages in Monday’s report from the province faulted the federal government and the company for not living up to court-imposed requirements to consult first nations and accommodate their interests. On that basis alone, first nations could probably tie up the project in the courts for a generation.
Besides, I can’t see Ottawa taking on the fight in political terms. “It is impossible to imagine that this project could go ahead, through British Columbia, over the objections of the government of the province,” as Clark put it. “It’s just impossible to imagine.”
Indeed, after this week’s developments in the political realm, it is hard to imagine this project going ahead on any basis.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Vaughn Palmer
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