Alberta Premier Danielle Smith rattled her B.C. counterpart this week with a proposal to bypass what she calls regulatory barriers to building a new pipeline to tidewater by pitching the project to the feds’ newly created Major Projects Office (MPO).
B.C. Premier David Eby countered that nothing has changed compared to the past, noting there is still no private proponent prepared to build such a multi-billion dollar project.
Smith argues Ottawa has ignored her calls to remove barriers, instead pointing to the Building Canada Act, which allows the federal government to designate hand-picked “nation-building projects” for priority treatment. She says her request to the MPO is aimed at reducing uncertainty for industry by placing a pipeline on that priority list, and allowing a private proponent to later take over….