The torturous, winding position of the BC NDP government on a new oil pipeline has twisted yet again after Premier David Eby announced his government would not oppose a new privately backed project from Alberta to the province’s north coast.
B.C.’s premier did a circuit of national media shows over the weekend, seeking to downplay, clarify and tweak previous comments he’s made in opposition to a new Alberta-B.C. pipeline.
“Sometimes I feel like the media is gathering around and chanting fight, fight, fight between us and Alberta right now,” Eby told CTV host Vassy Kapelos.
“There's no fight here now.”
He bristled when asked by CBC’s Rosemary Barton if there was a way to make a pipeline palatable.
“I think it’s a simplification and not quite right to say I’ve said no,” said Eby.
Stupid media. Always pushing sweet, innocent politicians around, egging on imaginary conflicts. Wherever do those mouth-breathing Neanderthals in the MSM get such an idea that B.C. opposed an oil pipeline?
Certainly not last month, when Eby emerged from a meeting of Western premiers in Yellowknife to tell B.C. media where he stood on a new pipeline.
“No, we’re opposed,” he said.
Or during his trade mission to Asia in early June.
“It’s not my job to tell Premier [Danielle] Smith that her vision for a North Coast pipeline is many, many years off and there’s no proponent at this point,” he said.
Or when his energy minister, Adrian Dix, said “.”
“It’s not an economic project. It has high risk and it’s disruptive. And in my view it won’t happen.”
So it was, perhaps, with a bit of surprise that Eby’s comments to Barton on CBC seemed to go in a different direction.
“We’ve supported Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, with a trade corridor from Manitoba right through to Prince Rupert,” said Eby. “It could include energy projects. It could potentially include a heavy oil pipeline project.”
That’s about as close as the premier has ever come to saying he could support a new pipeline.
Mostly his government has used the “cross that bridge when we get to it” metaphor, to put off taking a solid position.
But B.C. is under increasing pressure from Prime Minister Mark Carney, who supports the idea but said he won’t force it on any province, to at least appear open to a reasonable proposal.
Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is searching out private sector partners who might be interested in building such a project.
“I've said very clearly to Premier Smith that if she's able to arrange that, then we're happy to sit down with Alberta and have that conversation with them about what that would look like,” Eby told CTV.
“But let's be honest with ourselves. We have a $36 billion [Trans Mountain] pipeline that's publicly owned, the federal government cannot sell. It's not even operating at capacity.
“There is not a world in which that pipeline across the north happens without significant federal subsidy. If the premier of Alberta is able to pull that off, I say more power to her.”
Eby said he opposes Ottawa spending any federal funds to subsidize a new pipeline, as well as lifting the tanker moratorium off B.C.’s coast. Dix has said he’d prefer to see TMX first undertake a $4-billion upgrade to the line that could add another 250,000 barrels per day, on top of the 590,000 barrels from when TMX was twinned.
“I don't support tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidy for a brand-new pipeline across the north, getting rid of the tanker ban off the north coast, when we have major projects in B.C. and in Alberta with private companies that are advancing them, that are ready to work, ready to dig, ready to employ people, ready to diversify our trade relationships,” Eby said to Kapelos on CTV.
“Why would we prioritize a massive public spend like that when more limited public spend could deliver additional capacity through the pipeline we already own, and so many projects that are ready to go with actual proponents and able to deliver in a short period of time?”
Kapelos pushed back, saying she covered the B.C. government’s opposition to Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain (during the latter of which Eby was attorney general mounting legal challenges to the pipeline). She questioned why Eby so steadfastly assumed a new pipeline would require federal subsidies, and why he discounted TMX’s positive impact to the country’s GDP.
It wasn’t quite the free ride on the national stage the provincial government thought it was getting when it booked Eby on the station.
Nor did he get a free ride back home, appearing on CKNW Jas Johal’s show.
“I find some of the media discussion a bit frustrating,” the premier lamented.
Which should lead the BC NDP to the real question: Is the media actually the problem? Or, maybe it’s a government trying to deliver a message so convoluted that nobody understands it.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for The Orca/BIV. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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