Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Natural Resources (rdnewsNOW/Troy Gillard)

By Troy Gillard

pipeline politics

Federal, provincial ministers share differing opinions on Bill C-69

Sep 7, 2019 | 8:30 AM

Canada’s natural resources minister said in Red Deer on Friday he is “absolutely confident” that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will move ahead.

Amarjeet Sohi told attendees at a Canadian Propane Association conference at the Cambridge Inn and Suite that the federal government “went way beyond” on consulting with Indigenous communities regarding the project.

He said the six challenges to the adequacy of those consultations that will be heard by the Federal Court of Appeal won’t halt construction.

“An appeal is not an injunction. The project will continue to move forward,” he emphasized.

Dale Nally, Alberta’s associate minister of natural gas, who also spoke at Friday’s conference, was decidedly less optimistic.

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“For Alberta, there is only one measure of success, and that is completion. We will wait to celebrate until oil is flowing through the pipeline, and not before,” he said, adding the federal government has celebrated start of the TMX expansion four times only to hit more roadblocks.

The two ministers also shared differing opinions on Bill C-69, dubbed by opponents as the “No More Pipelines” bill, which changes the federal approval process for energy projects.

Sohi says the changes made by the bill are for the better.

“The early engagement part of Bill C69 is going to fundamentally change things in how good projects can move forward,” he suggested. “It will resolve so many issues that we end up dealing with at the back end.”

Sohi went so far as to say that if Bill C-69 had been in place years ago it’s likely the TMX expansion would have been completed by now.

Nally countered that the bill is an overreach on the part of the federal government.

“It completely changes the rules on consultation, and not in a manner that benefits the industry,” Nally suggested. “We do not want the wild west. We think there needs to be a responsible regulatory environment that includes strict time frames. It needs to be just as responsive to industry as it is everyone else. Unfortunately, we feel (the bill) is very one-sided.”

Nally reiterated the province’s intention to launch a constitutional challenge.