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B.C. Premier David Eby called Alberta’s proposed pipeline to the West Coast ‘incredibly alarming to British Columbians.’Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and B.C. Premier David Eby have a fundamental disagreement about whether Canada needs another oil pipeline to the West Coast.
It’s 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 – at least for now – showing a concerted effort to maintain civility.
Ms. Smith phoned Mr. Eby on Monday, giving him two days of advance warning before announcing that her government would file a pipeline application to Canada’s Major Projects Office.
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’s private discussion with Ms. Smith.
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For his part, Mr. Eby avoided any direct attacks on Alberta when reporters sought his reaction to the pipeline application on Wednesday. He isn’t 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.
It’s clear the New Democratic Party government in B.C. does not support Alberta’s proposed oil project. But there are no threats or ultimatums at this point.
“Don’t mistake my politeness for weakness on protecting our economy and our coast,” Mr. Eby said at the Wednesday press conference.
“The 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.”
Mr. Eby said his chief concern is that opening up B.C.’s North Coast to oil tanker traffic – one of the requirements for Ms. Smith’s application – will undermine First Nations’ support for projects that he wants developed.
This summer, tankers laden with liquefied natural gas began shipping out of Kitimat, B.C. 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’ support for those projects, Mr. Eby said.
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A carrier ship docked at LNG Canada’s export facility in Kitimat, B.C., in August.Jesse Winter/Reuters
Some First Nations leaders have been unequivocal in their opposition to Alberta’s proposal.
“To even entertain this idea shows a profound disrespect for both First Nations law and the will of the people who live there,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, in a Wednesday statement.
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. “The federal government must immediately and unequivocally reaffirm the tanker ban and put this dangerous proposal to rest.”
When Mr. Eby served as the province’s attorney-general, he led the B.C. government’s legal fight against the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2017. But as Premier, he has tried to avoid stoking sentiments of alienation in Alberta.
Crucially, the B.C. Premier is seeking Ottawa’s support for his province’s list of potential projects that he says will help Canada’s economy in the midst of the current trade war with the U.S.
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The Major Projects Office is vetting several B.C.-based proposals already, including LNG Canada Phase 2.
Rather than oppose Ms. Smith’s favoured project, Mr. Eby is arguing that the ban on oil tankers in B.C.’s northern waters is crucial to the Canadian economy.
“We have supported the tanker ban from the very beginning because it is foundational to our ability to get some major projects done,” he said.
“And to put that tanker ban at threat, it’s 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’re trying to build in the country here.”
The strategies have varied, but British Columbia’s governments have been throwing up obstacles to new oil pipelines from Alberta to the coast for more than a decade.
In 2012, relations between the premiers of B.C. and Alberta became frosty when B.C. made a series of demands, including cash compensation, in exchange for support of Enbridge Inc.’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
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B.C.’s former premier, Christy Clark, walked out of a meeting with fellow premiers and announced to waiting reporters that her province would not sign on to a national energy strategy unless her conditions were met.
In the end, the Northern Gateway project was cancelled, not because of Ms. Clark’s demands, but because the Federal Court of Appeal in 2016 quashed the federal permit in a ruling that concluded Ottawa had failed in its duty to consult First Nations.
Next up was Kinder Morgan’s 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.
The dispute prompted Alberta to launch a boycott of B.C. wine in 2018, a measure that former NDP premier John Horgan described as “histrionics.”
As attorney-general, Mr. Eby’s 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.
