Local news delivered daily to your email inbox. Subscribe for FREE to the rdnewsNOW newsletter.

Bilous pleased Trans Mountain pipeline expansion moving forward

May 30, 2018 | 3:27 PM

His topic du jour for the last six months, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Deron Bilous spoke once again about the Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline expansion while in Red Deer on Wednesday.

Speaking at a Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Bilous said Ottawa’s move to purchase the project from Kinder Morgan Canada is a very positive step forward, despite the fact they could’ve acted more quickly.

 

 

“We know the majority of Canadians support the project, so it’s positive to see shovels will be in the ground very soon,” Bilous said. “This is a significant number of jobs. This is also critical to Canada’s infrastructure, our energy sector, but frankly it’s also symbolic of investment in Canada. This sends a message to investors that Canada continues to remain a great country to invest in and of course with Alberta leading the pack.”

Bilous noted that while the $4.5 billion deal was a necessary step to take to ensure the pipeline gets built, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared his intention to eventually sell the pipeline back to a private outfit.

“Because it will be owned by the Federal government, regardless of if the Province of British Columbia or others try to continue to delay, this project is going to move forward,” he said.

Bilous shared that while on a recent trip to Singapore and China, there was one question investors asked him at all turns: will TMX get built? His answer to them, he says, was that yes it would.

“What I can tell you is that investors made it very clear that they need to see action, [to] see this pipeline get built in order to restore their confidence,” he said. “We’ve already heard from a number of international investors that they’re quite pleased this project now has certainty that it’s moving forward, and I’m confident we’re going to see some new investments and dollars flowing into the province.”