'Confidence growing' Trans Mountain Pipeline will expand: CEO buoyed Kinder Morgan boss boasts 'communication' with Trudeau government.

When it comes to the proposed Trans Mountain expansion in British Columbia, ''confidence is actually growing,'' Kinder Morgan CEO Steve Kean told investors on a conference call Dec. 8.

"We also had, of course, a government changeover up there, and we're in communication with the new government to understand what, if any, additional process will be required,'' Kean said from a boardroom in Houston. ''But we're hopeful that that can be managed within the existing timeframe that we're working with.''

Kean told investors he expects to ''get our permit'' from the National Energy Board in May 2016, with approval from the federal cabinet later in the summer. The new pipeline should be shipping diluted bitumen to Burnaby by ''the latter half of 2019,'' according to Kean.

What conversations have happened between Kinder Morgan and the new Liberal government to make Kean so confident? According to the federal lobbying database,none.