BC’s Attorney General says it is disappointing that the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled against the province’s attempt to regulate what goes through an expanded Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta.
Moments after the decision was made public, David Eby was asked about the ruling while in Kamloops.
“Caring about our land and water and our economy and the impacts of potential spills of not just bitumen but also potentially other substances that the province would want to regulate is critically important, and we’ll certainly be doing what we can within our jurisdiction to protect our economy and our environment,” he said.
Eby was also asked if he anticipates any further Trans Mountain pipeline issues going to court.
“There are federal cases going forward related to First Nations and concerns around consultations and impacts on First Nations rights,” he added. “The province of B.C. is not currently participating in any of those cases, and we don’t anticipate at this stage participating in those.”
In a statement, BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson says the whole endeavour has been a waste of taxpayer money, adding British Columbians deserve better.
“David Eby must come clean with British Columbians about how many taxpayer dollars he has wasted on this anti-pipeline crusade to date,” said Wilkinson. “British Columbians deserve to know how much has been spent and how many hospital beds or units of affordable housing those tax dollars could have funded instead.”
Eby was asked if he had an estimate over what the court process has cost the government.
” “No we don’t have those numbers,” he responded. “But I could tell you in terms of the cost of the catastrophic oil spill, bitumen spill, or another toxic substance that’s brought into the province, this has been a fraction of a fraction of that kind of cost, and our efforts to protect our environment.”
This Supreme Court ruling means the long delayed Trans Mountain project can go ahead. It has been in the works for almost a decade, and the Federal Government bought the pipeline from Kinder Morgan Canada in 2018 for $4.5-billion.
– with files from Colton Davies
