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Don’t hold Alberta ‘hostage,’ Rachel Notley warns B.C.

TransMountain pipeline project expected to proceed in fall

The TransMountain pipeline expansion is approved by Ottawa and no province should attempt to hold another one “hostage” by attempting to block a federal project, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday.

Commenting on the results of the B.C. election, with B.C. NDP and Green Party opponents emerging as a possible government, Notley warned that any effort by a minority government or coalition with one or two seats to stall or disrupt the project would only create investor uncertainty.

Notley told reporters in Edmonton she expects Kinder Morgan Canada’s oil-and-fuel pipeline twinning project to proceed on schedule this year, despite a group of court challenges scheduled to be heard as one case at the Federal Court of Canada in the fall.

Notley refused to comment directly on B.C. NDP leader John Horgan’s campaign promise to use “every tool in the toolbox” to stop the project if he forms a B.C. government. That outcome won’t be clarified until May 24, when recounts and absentee ballots determine if Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberal government will continue.

more to come…