Conflict Brews Between Premiers: Pipeline from Bruderheim At Risk?

Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipelines Project, which would see a twin pipeline established from Bruderheim to Kitimat, British Columbia is facing new challenges this week.

Although remaining largely silent on the issue of running the Gateway pipelines through their province, the BC Government this week released a list of requirements before they would consider the construction and operation of heavy oil pipelines within the province.

“Our government is committed to economic development that is balanced with environmental protection,” said BC Premier Christy Clark, announcing her government’s expectations. “Our government has identified and developed minimum requirements that must be met before we will consider support for any heavy oil pipeline projects in our province,” she continued.

Among BC’s expectations are the development of world-leading marine and land oil spill response, prevention and recovery systems. The BC government is also demanding what it terms a “fair share of the fiscal and economic benefits” of any proposed heavy oil pipline.

The latter demand was soundly rejected, however, by Premier Redford. “It’s certainly not a path that I’m prepared to go down as the premier of the province,” Redford told reporters earlier this week, indicating her belief that Clark is suggesting changing “the fundamental fiscal arrangements of Confederation.”

Clark may be disappointed in legal analysis presented this week, which indicates that Redford may be well-founded in her belief that BC is not deserving of any special status on this issue.

Notably, in a blog post released by the University of Calgary Faculty of Law on Wednesday, analysts citing a variety of cases indicated that BC’s legal position is “weak” with its “fair share” demand. In particular, “the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline will be an interprovincial work [and]… therefore subject to federal jurisdiction and not provincial jurisdiction,” they said. This implies that BC is not in a legal position to “frustrate a work… consider[ed] to be in the national interest.”

But what may prove to be Redford’s larger challenge in supporting Enbridge’s pipeline is not BC Premier Clark, but rather Clark’s most likely replacement.

Polling is consistently showing that the BC NDP Opposition, led by Adrian Dix, will likely form a massive majority government in BC’s scheduled election next May. Clark’s government is also faced with this week’s report by BC’s auditor general, claiming that government has understated this year’s deficit by over $500 million.

Notably, the BC NDP has formally registered its opposition to the Enbridge project, and also launched a province-wide campaign against the proposal.

“The latest version of the [Governing BC] Liberals’ ever-shifting [Northern Gateway] position still does not acknowledge the fundamental problems with this proposal – that it threatens both BC’s economy and environment,” Dix said earlier this week. “Since the government refuses to do so, it’s clearly up to British Columbians to come together, make their voices heard and oppose the Enbridge pipeline,” Dix concluded.