By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Bilous dismisses ‘irrelevant’ pipeline comments from federal NDP leader

Jan 18, 2019 | 4:26 PM

Alberta’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade didn’t mince words Friday when asked what he thought about the combative relationship between his government and their counterparts in Ottawa and B.C.

Speaking at a Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Deron Bilous ran down what his party has done since being elected in 2015 to get the economy back on track.

Asked about what it’s like fighting with the party’s orange counterparts to the west and in the nation’s capital, Bilous admitted the three are very much not on the same page.

“The current federal NDP leader and his comments around the pipeline are irrelevant in that he has no say in whether that project moves forward,” Bilous said.

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“For me, what’s frustrating is I think what the BC New Democrats and federal New Democrats are forgetting is that this is about jobs, this is about the livelihood of many Canadians.”

Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to abandon Trans Mountain altogether.

“The Trans Mountain expansion, that’s over $15 billion worth of investment and thousands of jobs. These are good mortgage-paying jobs. It also means we get a higher price for our product,” Bilous continued. “As I mentioned, Canadians have lost out on over $9 billion that would build new schools in all communities across the country, new hospitals, fund our healthcare system, pay for roads and bridges that help move goods and people.”

He also said he has “very little time” for the federal NDP, adding that both they and the B.C. NDP government have lost sight of the bigger picture.

Interestingly, section 1.02 of the Alberta NDP’s constitution states, ‘The Party shall constitute a section of the New Democratic Party of Canada.’

Bilous was also asked about the oil production curtailment of 325,000 barrels per day in a bid to eliminate the price differential on western Canadian crude. The cutbacks are currently scheduled to remain in place for about three months and then be lowered to about 95,000 bpd through the rest of 2019.

“We are obviously monitoring the situation daily, but the minister of energy, along with cabinet, will decide month by month how long to keep curtailment up,” he said.

“We know that it’s a short-term solution. We’ve made it very clear to industry this is not going to go on for months and months and months, so we’ll continue to assess. It was a very difficult decision, but one that was absolutely necessary to ensure thousands of Albertans didn’t lose their jobs because companies were unable to continue to operate essentially with no revenue.”

Bilous says the measure is having the desired effect. The Canadian Press reported on Wednesday that the difference between a barrel of bitumen-blend Western Canadian Select and West Texas Intermediate is just $8.95 US per barrel.

Last Friday, it reached its lowest point of $6.95 US per barrel since peaking in June 2015 at $52.

(with file from The Canadian Press)