The Liberal government expects to get $500 million a year out of the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline and is promising to spend it all on cleaner sources of energy and projects that pull carbon out of the atmosphere.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau in an interview with Canadian Press stated that the expanded pipeline is not fodder for negotiating with other parties in the minority government. Rather, he said, it is a crucial piece of the puzzle of financing Canada’s transition to a clean energy economy.
“We purchased it for a reason,” said Morneau. “We now see how it can help us accelerate our clean energy transition by putting any revenues that we get from it into a transition to clean energy. We think that is the best way we can move forward in our current context.”
The Liberal government bought the existing pipeline for $4.5 billion in 2018, in a bid to overcome the opposition of the British Columbia government to the expansion.
Federally, the two parties with the most in common with the Liberals on climate change both think the expansion should be cancelled. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, whose party has enough seats to support the Liberals through any confidence votes, wants tougher climate action but has stopped short of using the pipeline as a line in the sand.
He has suggested that ship has effectively sailed.
(Canadian Press)
