OTTAWA – British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has shifted her tone on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, focusing on the potentially negative impacts the project could have on her province.
A few months ago, as public hearings got underway, Clark was sitting on the fence, careful to take a neutral stance on the proposed project.
But now, her opposition seems to be growing.
“As we’ve been going through the hearing process ... we’re discovering more and more about potentially some of the flaws in this project,” Clark said in an interview on the Global News program The West Block with Tom Clark.
“So, yes, I think our list of concerns is growing as we’re learning more.”
Clark’s comments come days after her environment minister, Terry Lake, issued a statement firing a shot at Enbridge, the company behind the proposal.
Lake said the company doesn’t seem to be taking the “very real concerns of British Columbians seriously.”
The National Energy Board is currently holding regulatory hearings into the proposal to build a massive pipeline carrying bitumen oil from Bruderheim, Alta. to British Columbia’s northwestern coast for export.
The hearings are scheduled to wrap up in mid-December, and an independent panel is expected to render a decision to whether, and under what conditions, the pipeline should go ahead by December 2013.
The pipeline, which has seen vocal opposition from the get-go, would carry about 55,000 barrels of bitumen daily along nearly 1,200 kilometres from the Alberta oilsands all the way to Kitimat, B.C., and comes at a cost of approximately $6 billion.
The list of opponents includes British Columbians, environmentalists, the provincial government, and some First Nations groups.
Over the summer, Clark issued a list of five demands she said must be met in order for the pipeline to trave through her province – three to do with the environment, one relating to consulting First Nations and one stipulating B.C. gets its “fair share” of the pipeline revenues.
Although much attention has focused on the financial demand, Clark insists all five requirements will weigh equally in her government’s decision – and if those five aren’t met, Alberta can forget about the pipeline, regardless of the outcome of the hearings.
“The point is that the Enbridge pipeline is not going to go through British Columbia without the consent of the BC government, period. That’s all. End of story,” Clark said Sunday. “No matter what the size of the reward in this could be, if the risk is still too great, it isn’t going to happen.”
Earlier this month, Clark met with Alberta Premier Alison Redford in Calgary to discuss the five conditions. Clark later described the brief meeting as “frosty.”
Redford spurned the idea of handing over a portion of the royalties to B.C. as soon as the idea was put on the table.
While the debate wages on between the two western provinces, B.C.’s politicians have been forced to take the discussion to the streets, since Clark adjourned the provincial legislature.
The last time they sat was this past May, and Clark hasn’t given any indication they’ll be back before next spring.
However, she argues, the legislature – where the New Democratic leader Adrian Dix opposes the project -- isn’t necessarily the place to hold pipeline discussions.
“Where the debate really needs to happen first and foremost is between the premier of Alberta, the premier of British Columbia and the prime minister of the country,” she said.
“Two of those three people don’t actually sit in the B.C. legislature, so we’ve got to start this discussion between the leaders in our country about whether or not and how the five conditions are going to be met. That’s where the discussion has to happen.”
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