Chamber: TransMountain cancellation and what it would mean for Central Alberta
Last week Kinder Morgan announced they were halting all unnecessary spending on the TransMountain pipeline expansion project in response to ongoing uncertainty caused by the government of British Columbia. If there is not a guarantee of no more government caused delays by May 31st Kinder Morgan will cancel the project altogether.
That would be a disaster economically and incur a constitutional crisis as a federally approved project was allowed to be derailed by the NDP government of B.C. Here in Central Alberta the economic and financial impact will be especially painful and felt for years to come if the pipeline does not get built.
No new pipeline is effectively placing a cap on the amount of oil and gas companies can extract. Without increased pipeline capacity existing energy companies will have little incentive to invest. With the uncertainty this has caused Canada will struggle to attract major projects in the future. Investment will flow to the U.S. where certainty is higher, costs are lower and there are fewer regulations. Exploration and drilling programs will be scaled back and with it, the need for servicing and manufacturing. Rail lines will continue to be dominated by oil cars and the agriculture sector will suffer for it.
The rate of population and economic growth in our region has been directly linked to the prosperity of the oil and gas sector, specifically the service and manufacturing industries. So are the livelihoods of tens of thousands Central Albertans that have pursued highly skilled and well paying careers in the energy industry.