Alberta Premier Rachel Notley spoke at the grand opening for Suncor’s Fort Hills mine on Monday, September 10, 2018.
She says the challenges facing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion shows her province can do everything by the book and still get shortchanged.
Notley says the recent Federal Court of Appeal decision quashing the expansion project has provoked frustration and anger in Alberta, but says her government will continue to fight to get it built.
She says without it, the ongoing pipeline bottlenecks will continue to cost Canada $40 million a day in a discounted price for oil.
Addressing the crowd in the main administrative building at Fort Hills, approximately 90 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, Notley told reporters the legal system can’t be used as a tool to drag construction out.
“That’s exactly the problem that we are completely focused on with laser like precision to make sure that we don’t get into that kind of situation,” said Notley. “It’s not acceptable that it would be dragging on for years and years as people use the legal system as a gamesmanship tool.”
The Appeal Court recently struck down the pipeline on the grounds the federal government did not consult properly with First Nations and did not take into account the impact of tanker traffic on marine life.
The Trans Mountain expansion project would triple the capacity of the existing line, which takes oil products from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.
The Alberta government says lack of pipeline access is forcing its producers to sell exclusively to the U.S. market at a substantial price reduction.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government is considering all options to get the project restarted. Notley met with Trudeau last week in Edmonton and said Trudeau promised her a new timeline within weeks.
