Opposition leader offers his plan to build pipeline

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer – Morinville News file photo

by Morinville News Staff

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer outlined his plan to get the Trans Mountain Expansion built, a two-step plan that he says a Conservative Government will take if elected next year.

Last month, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned federal approval for the pipeline on the grounds there was insufficient consultation with indigenous communities and ruling that the National Energy Board failed to properly weigh the environmental impacts of extra tanker traffic off the BC coast.

Scheer’s two-step plan would see the matter appealed to the Supreme Court while immediately completing consultations with indigenous groups.

The Conservative leader said he would also repeal Bill C-69 and end the shipping ban in northern British Columbia, and enact legislation to clarify roles of proponents and governments in consultations, end foreign-funded interference in regulatory hearings, and provide certainty on approval timelines and schedules.

“After years of failing to deliver results on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals still have no plan of action to get the pipeline completed,” Scheer said in a media release Monday afternoon. “What they [ the Liberals] announced last week gets us no closer to construction or completion of this critical project and what they have done over the last three years has inflicted terrible damage to our energy sector.”

Scheer said Prime Minister Trudeau ought to immediately appoint a Ministerial Special Representative to complete the indigenous consultation process, and enact emergency legislation to “affirm that Transport Canada’s analysis of tanker traffic was sufficient and does not need to be duplicated by the National Energy Board.”

Additionally, the Conservative leader said Trudeau ought to request a stay of the Federal Court of Appeal ruling and appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada as well as support Bill S-245 to clarify that the pipeline is under federal jurisdiction.

Scheer went on to say that if elected, his government will enact Step 2 of the plan by repealing the Carbon Tax, repealing Bill C-69, and end the ban on shipping traffic on the North Coast of British Columbia.