The logic to Trudeau’s action may lie in an obscure and overlooked 2014 agreement to ensure China got a pipeline built
31 May 2018
Why is Justin Trudeau buying a pipeline?
Canada’s government announced yesterday it was planning to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5bn. This pipeline – which transports oil from Alberta’s tar sands to the western coast of British Columbia – is at the centre of a bitter political war that shows no signs of abating.
If Canadians are going to have to pay the $10 to $15-billion cost of expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline, it's important they aren't bound by side deals that are not in the public interest made by the project's former corporate owner.
Trans Mountain existing assets valued at $550 million in 2007.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau has proposed sacrificing Canadian taxpayers to bail out an uneconomic U.S. pipeline owned by former Enron executives.
Let’s parse the fantastic numbers, because they will affect all of us. And the bill for taxpayers won’t be $4.5 billion as Morneau claims, but much closer to $20 billion, says economist Robyn Allan.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced on May 29 that the Government of Canada will buy the existing Trans Mountain pipeline system from Kinder Morgan at a price of $4.5 billion.
Three prominent Quebec-area Indigenous chiefs were among the hundreds of people who gathered in Montreal on Sunday to protest the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.
Assembly of First Nations regional Chief Ghislain Picard, Mohawk Chief Serge Simon and Innu Chief Jean-Charles Pietacho spoke out against the project, citing the need to show solidarity with First Nations and other groups in British Columbia who are fighting against it.
Robyn Allan laughs after a nonstop hour during which the economist has elaborated on a previous hour-long conversation explaining why the Trans Mountain Expansion Project should be stopped in its tracks.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the government to take the money it was planning to use to compensate Kinder Morgan investors in the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and instead invest in clean energy jobs.
Last week Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the government is willing to “provide indemnity” to any investors if “unnecessary delays” cause costs to rise.
“What we should be doing instead is using that fossil fuel subsidy, using the proposed money … to invest in clean energy jobs for today and the future,” said Singh Tuesday.
