Premier David Eby is set to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney in Vancouver on Wednesday after Alberta’s pitch for a new pipeline to the B.C. coast moved a step forward last week.
An agreement announced last Friday outlines a pathway for a new pipeline to potentially start construction by late 2027 and a deal on Alberta’s industrial carbon price.
Eby said in a statement on Friday the agreement rewards the province for “bad behaviour” as he took jabs at Alberta’s separatist movement.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Eby reiterated his go-to response to the pipeline question: that B.C.’s many shovel-ready projects risk being sidelined by a pipeline that does not have a proponent or a route.
“British Columbia backs Canada, and we need Ottawa to back British Columbia,” said Eby.
Carney said after announcing the agreement on Friday that Ottawa and Alberta would work with B.C. going forward to ensure “British Columbians benefit from the projects that touch them.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith favours a northern route for a new pipeline to carry Alberta crude oil to markets in Asia.
However, First Nations in northwest B.C. oppose any pipeline that would require lifting a moratorium on oil tankers in the region.
Smith has not ruled out a southern route to the coast instead, which would possibly end in Delta.
The Alberta government is funding an application to the federal Major Projects Office for potential fast-tracking of the pipeline, due by July 1.
B.C. Conservative interim leader Trevor Halford on Tuesday accused the B.C. NDP of being obstructionist on pipelines, citing the previous Horgan government’s opposition to the Trans Mountain expansion.
“We’ve got a prime minister, we’ve got a premier of Alberta, who are driving this project forward — and without [B.C.] at the table, I think that’s a total abdication of leadership,” said Halford.
Ottawa and Alberta’s latest agreement builds on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) they signed last November.
It would also see Alberta’s industrial carbon price climb to $130 a tonne by 2040, while the price in other provinces and territories is set to rise to $170 a tonne by that year.
Carney said the federal government would ensure other provinces can match Alberta’s carbon price.
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