Page 4 - NorthAmOil Week 03

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil
Legal victory for Trans Mountain, but further battles remain
Canada’s top court has dismissed an attempt by British Columbia to regulate what can be transported on the Trans Mountain pipeline through the province’s territory
WESTERN CANADA
WHAT:
An attempt by British Columbia to require provincial permits for shipping oil on the Trans Mountain pipeline has been dismissed, but other challenges remain.
WHY:
This was one of several legal challenges faced by the pipeline, with others ongoing.
WHAT NEXT:
The Canadian government is looking into to handing over ownership of the pipeline to indigenous communities eventually.
PIPELINES remain in the spotlight in Can- ada, with the federally owned Trans Mountain project boosted by a legal victory last week. On December 16, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an attempt by the province of British Columbia to regulate what can be transported on the Trans Mountain pipeline system once it has been expanded.
The BC government had sought the right to require provincial permits for shipping oil and petroleum products on the Trans Moun- tain system, with the move described by media as an attempt to keep heavy oil out of the pipe- line. However, the Supreme Court was unusu- ally quick in making its decision to dismiss the attempt, announcing it immediately after hear- ing arguments. The decision upholds a BC Court of Appeal ruling that said such permits would violate Ottawa’s authority to approve and regu- late pipelines that cross provincial boundaries.
Slow progress
The development is the latest twist for the long-delayed Trans Mountain expansion pro- ject, which has encountered a variety of obsta- cles in recent years and came close to being
cancelled altogether at one point. The project has survived thus far owing in large part to sup- port from Ottawa. Canada’s federal government bought the system – and its planned expansion – in 2018 from former operator Kinder Morgan, amid concern over the expansion’s fate. Subse- quently, Ottawa also re-approved the pipeline expansion last year after the original approval was overturned by the courts on concerns about the consultation and review processes involved.
The recently re-elected Liberal government, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has tried to strike a balance between promoting Cana- dian energy exports and pursuing environ- mental goals related to emissions reduction. Trudeau maintains that building the Trans Mountain expansion is in Canada’s best inter- est. His Liberals will also need to shore up sup- port in the resource-rich Western Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan after not winning a single seat in either in the 2019 federal election.
Following the latest court ruling, the Trans Mountain expansion, which would almost triple capacity on the system to 890,000 bar- rels per day (bpd), stands a better chance of
P4
w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 03 22•January•2020