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More stalling on Trans Mountain; may be pivotal in October election
Gary Park for Petroleum News
The Canadian government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shows every sign of turning the Trans Mountain pipeline project into a pivotal issue in the federal election expected sometime in October, ignoring the fact that it has invested C$4.5 billion in the existing and proposed expansion of the shipping system from Alberta to the Pacific Coast.
What has long been suspected became a fact in late April when Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi said that, even though the Trudeau cabinet will be able to make a final decision on TMX by its latest deadline of June 18, he could not guarantee a verdict before the fall campaign.
“I cannot commit to (meeting the June 18 target) because it’s not my decision,” he told reporters. “It’s the decision of the cabinet.”
All he would pledge was to continue “engagement” with First Nations “in a meaningful two-way dialogue to ensure our constitutional obligation (to consult with indigenous communities) is met.”
Sohi said he is ready to work with Alberta’s new Premier Jason Kenney in a “shared goal of ensuring we are working hard on behalf of Albertans on a shared goal to grow the economy to create jobs and to move forward in getting our resources to global markets.”
Collision course That thinking could put him on a collision course with his own cabinet colleague, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who issued a tweet after federal Opposition leader Andrew Scheer met with petroleum industry executives.
She said Scheer had been “caught scheming behind closed doors with wealthy executives to gut environmental protection laws, silence critics and (remove penalties on) pollution.”
Without making any direct reference to TMX, McKenna side-stepped the fact that most leaders of Canada’s largest oil and gas producers - Suncor Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, Shell Canada and Cenovus Energy - backed the former Alberta government’s plan to set a cap of 100 million metric tons a year on oil sands emissions and impose a provincial carbon tax.
For now, Sohi continues to go through the motions of “engaging” with First Nations on TMX, noting those discussions have involved 60 federal employees in eight teams working in British Columbia and Alberta.
Faced with the latest extension of the decision-making deadline from May 22 to June 18, and now an unknown date, TMX Chief Executive Officer Ian Anderson said his company can do no more than get “poised to restart the expansion project (from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 bpd).”
Others were less tactful, including Matthew Deeprose, chief executive of Vault Pipelines, who said delays in TMX construction make it difficult for contractors and subcontractors to retain workers, resulting in prices creeping up.
One source in the pipeline sector said some subcontractors are mulling over whether they should even retain their TMX work commitments, while Tristan Goodman, president of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, said that amid doubts over the federal government’s “desire to move forward” with TMX, the setbacks have become “unacceptable.”
- GARY PARK
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