The prime minister met with the premiers of Alberta and B.C. on Wednesday (Jan. 28) in Ottawa, with the premiers finding some “common ground” but continuing to strike different notes on their desire for a new oil pipeline from the oilsands to the west coast.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the trio talked about the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that commits to working toward a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. She and Prime Minister Mark Carney signed the agreement in November.
“There are many aspects in there where we have a lot of common ground: on electricity and interties and nuclear, on Trans Mountain expansion as well as developing out LNG,” Smith told reporters from CBC News outside the meeting. “And we’ve got some work to do, of course.”
She pledged to keep Carney and B.C. Premier David Eby “in the loop” as she prepares a pipeline proposal that she expects to deliver on time this coming June.
Eby quipped that the tone of the meeting was “civil” and “borderline friendly” in a press conference afterward. He pointed to shared interests in trade, electricity and energy generation.
“The goal here is to respect each other’s differences and move forward as best as possible,” he said.
But, Eby says that also means ensuring B.C.’s voice is heard on its support for the north coast oil tanker ban and the need for spill protection.
“It’s an incredibly treacherous stretch of water,” Eby said. “A spill of bitumen will decimate the north coast economy, causing billions of dollars in damage.”
He also acknowledged the limits of his constitutional authority to stop a project, comparing it to the Trans Mountain pipeline, which he said he “went to the wall on” to try to stop.
The Supreme Court of Canada in 2020 sided with a lower court that invalidated a B.C. law created to block the pipeline.
This is the first major meeting of the sides since Carney and Smith signed the MOU. Eby said B.C. should have been at the table.
“I’ve made it clear to the prime minister and to Premier Smith that the process was backwards,” he said.
Eby said he also spoke with the prime minister separately about several other topics, including softwood lumber trade with the United States and the outbreak of extortion-related violence in Surrey.
He said Carney committed to providing additional RCMP resources to the region and to arranging a meeting of police leadership from several other provinces in Surrey within the next two weeks to ensure there are no gaps in policing and information sharing.