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Cost to twin Trans Mountain pipeline now $1.9B higher: Kinder Morgan

Last Updated Aug 7, 2018 at 2:46 pm MDT

Pipes are seen at the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain facility in Edmonton on April 6, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

OTTAWA – Kinder Morgan Canada documents say expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline will cost the federal government another $1.9 billion beyond the company’s original construction estimate and will take another full year to complete.

The figure is included in documents Kinder Morgan Canada filed Tuesday with the United States Security and Exchange Commission related to the company’s plan to sell the pipeline to the Canadian government for $4.5 billion.

Kinder Morgan has long said it would cost $7.4 billion to build a second pipeline parallel to the first in order to triple its capacity, but the financial documents now say the company expects a $9.3-billion price tag.

The documents also suggest construction won’t be done until December 2021 — a full year beyond the last projection of December 2020.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau has been reluctant to discuss how much more it will cost to build the pipeline while the deal is still being finalized, and the closing date for that deal is now being pushed back well into the fall.

The documents also say shareholders will meet Aug. 30 in Calgary to vote on the proposed sale.