CP Rail CEO Not supportive of Rachel Notley’s crude-by-rail deal

EDMONTON — The head of Canadian Pacific Railway has voiced his displeasure at the idea of Alberta’s $3.7-billion deal with Canada’s two biggest rail companies to ship more crude via rail amid a pipeline crunch squeezing oilsands producers.

Keith Creel, speaking at a conference in Miami on Wednesday, said his company “didn’t like it at all” when Premier Rachel Notley stepped in to work out a plan that aims to move up to 120,00 barrels of oil per day by rail by 2020.

Saying the government’s presence in the commercial realm wasn’t “healthy,” Creel nonetheless admitted the deal “just as good if not better” than others hammered out by CP Rail.

Alberta has leased about 4,400 rail cars to get more oil to foreign markets, including refiners on the U.S. Gulf Coast, while the province works to increase pipeline capacity.