Remember the wine ban, British Columbia’s brazen attempt to block more bitumen from entering the province and Alberta’s threat to turn off the oil taps in retaliation?While political attention in Alberta focused Monday on the throne speech, the kamikaze candidate imbroglio and a looming election call, a high-stakes legal case was playing out in front of the B.C. Court of Appeal.
On the other sits the federal government, owners of the pipeline to the Pacific coast, along with the oil-producing provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The over-arching question in the case is “the extent to which our federal constitution will permit the province to protect its people, its land, its water,” B.C.’s lawyer, Joseph Arvay, said in his opening remarks.
“The true purpose and effect of the proposed legislation is to create a ‘tool’ for B.C. that can . . . impede additional heavy oil originating in Alberta from being transported through B.C. generally and . . . frustrate the TMX project specifically.” As Mount Royal University political analyst David Taras points out, Albertans are hurting due to the economic slump and inability to build pipelines.
If Horgan’s government doesn’t want more Alberta oil crossing its boundaries, how about a whole lot less?