take care like the fraught Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion is n’t happening after all . Or , actually , wait . It is — but only after the Canadian government decided to purchase the damn affair for 4.5 billion Canadian dollars ( roughly $ 3.5 billion ) .
Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced Tuesday in a insistence conference that the government is buying the 715 - mile pipeline expansion and its related substructure outright , reports CBC . Speculation around this plan commence Monday after Canada ’s National Observerobtained informationthat original owner Kinder Morgan scrub a key permit earlier this month .
Really , though , this drama but has been bubble for week now . Since March , protestandoppositionfrom autochthonous res publica and environmentalists has grown so severe that Kinder Morgan had set a deadline of May 31 to desert the labor if the state of affairs was n’t resolved . protester did n’t want another project that ’d turn on the origin of bitumen from the Alberta seaman sands or the transport of sound out bitumen across their lands . This fossil fuel is n’t your regular oil . It’shighly toxicand super thick , so it ’s not light to make clean up .
Now , a gargantuan energy company wo n’t be retain responsible if it spills : For now , that ’s on the federal government .
“ The Trans Mountain enlargement project is of critical interest to Canada and Canadians , ” Morneau said during the presser . “ Our governance ’s position is clear-cut : It must be establish , and it will be build . ”
That ’s a fact . Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — supposed fighter of clime changeandchampion of indigenous right — is set to make this crude fossil oil pipeline a realism , call it “ vital”in a tweet Tuesday . Earlier this month , Morneausuggestedthe government activity give Kinder Morgan for its loss during the weeks construction was on pause . Well , that ’s not happening , but it certainly is paying Kinder Morgan a adorable sum to purchase the Trans Mountain Pipeline .
The regime contrive to eventually betray the project to a fresh owner , salvage itself of any technical province should the word of mouth suffer an chance event . Kinder Morgan published thisstatementonline from CEO Steve Kean :
We are pleased that [ Kinder Morgan Canada Limited ] and the Government were able-bodied to get to accord on a transaction that benefits the people of Canada , [ Trans Mountain Pipeline organization and the enlargement project ] shippers and both [ Kinder Morgan , Inc. ] and [ Kinder Morgan Canada Limited ] shareholders . The outcome make represents the best opportunity to make out [ Trans Mountain Pipeline system and the expansion task ] and thereby understand the gravid economical benefits call by that project .
This is n’t the end of the story . The responsibility of British Columbia ishell - benton keeping the project out of its territory . So are First Nations . Lawsuits areongoing , and it ’s unclear how the Union government will begin construction this summertime in light of the pending court actions .
What is exonerated is that those on the opponent wo n’t sit lazily by .
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