by Morinville News Staff
The United Conservatives are calling for MLAs to stand together against the federal Liberal government’s Bill C-69, which they say would make it more difficult for new pipeline projects to get approved, putting a key driver of Alberta’s economy and the thousands of jobs that depend on it in jeopardy.
United Conservative leader Jason Kenney asked the NDP government in a letter Thursday to urgently consider a motion in the Legislative Assembly this week to make it clear to Ottawa that Alberta stands united against the new energy project approval rules.
“We cannot afford to sit idly while the federal government attacks our energy industry, jeopardizing thousands of jobs and our vital economic interests,” Kenney said. “The proposed new measures will kill further investment in Alberta’s energy projects and result in even more uncertainty for an energy industry struggling under numerous job-killing policies.”
The UCP say the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) has stated that the net effect of the new rules would be “an impractical and unworkable process that will create unmanageable uncertainty and a decision-making framework that will insert broader policy issues squarely into a process that is not equipped to resolve them.”
CEPA went on to tell the committee that it would be “difficult to imagine that a new major pipeline could be built in Canada under …” these new rules.
