No Pipeline? No Support for Federal Climate Plan Says Notley #ableg #abpoli

That the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against the government’s Trans Mountain Expansion project was not what most Albertans wanted to hear today.  It was called a “stunning decision”, a “major blow” and “terrible news”.  There was so much political posturing going on it became tiresome quickly.  Instead, the focus should be on what we need to know and what is going to get us moving again.

Richard Starke, PC MLA Vermilion-Lloydminster

Bill Morneau held a press conference in which he says the Federal Court outlined the necessary action required to move forward.  It’s a small list, actually.

  1. The environmental review must include what effect the additional tanker traffic will have on marine life, specifically, killer whales.
  2. The report did not display “meaningful dialogue” between communities and the government, instead revealing a list of concerns from the communities that the government did not respond to.

At 6:00pm, the Premier held her own press conference to respond to the decision.

“I’ve always said that protecting the environment and growing our economy can and absolutely must go hand in hand. That’s why in Alberta we established our made-in-Alberta climate plan that creates jobs, lowers emissions and sets our economy on a stronger, more diversified, foundation.

Yet as important as climate action is to our province’s future, I’ve also always said that taking the next step and signing on to the federal Climate plan can’t happen without the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

So, today, I’m announcing that with the Trans Mountain halted and the work on it halted, until the federal government gets it’s act together, Alberta is pulling out of the federal Climate Change Plan.

And let’s be clear; without Alberta, the plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on…

To Ottawa, I say this: successive federal governments created this mess.  It was broken in Ottawa and now Ottawa needs to fix it. “

She did say that there would be no change to Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan and that we would not be impacted by the federal plan at this time.  And before people yell about the “social license”, it had nothing to do with environmentalists or B.C.; signing on to the federal plan was to get the federal government to back the pipeline.  The federal government wanted some allies for their plan, Alberta needed an ally for its plan.

That’s the social license.  And without the pipeline, Notley pulled her support – because it was never about the “radical” environmentalists or pipeline opponents, it was about the federal government having Alberta’s back.

Supporting documentation above and below.

Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean
Content Director/Writer

[email protected], @ThisweekinAB on Facebook and Twitter.

Sources:

Federal court quashes Trans Mountain expansion; Ottawa forging ahead with purchase

https://www.facebook.com/CBCVancouver/videos/534653820305936/?notif_id=1535649718596680&notif_t=live_video_explicit

https://energi.news/markham-on-energy/trans-mountain-expansion-approval-overturned-by-federal-court/

https://www.facebook.com/cbcedmonton/videos/267224217251299/