Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said that her province will fight Burnaby’s recent appeal of a National Energy Board decision to allow Trans Mountain work to continue in the city.
At a press conference Monday, Notley said that although the wine boycott may be over for now, she’s not planning to let B.C. continue stalling the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
“Later this week, the government of Alberta will intervene in the City of Burnaby’s appeal of the recent NEB decision,” said Notley, adding that Albertan officials are in Ottawa this week to discuss further measures with the federal government.
The pipeline dispute between the neighbouring provinces has gone on since the end of January when Premier John Horgan proposed new restrictions on diluted bitumen transportation by pipeline or rail, at least until the “behaviour” of spilled bitumen can be better understood and a response plan can be made.
Notley retaliated with a boycott of B.C. wine and a suspension of talks about buying B.C. electricity in early February.
The NEB, which had initially approved Trans Mountain in 2016, issued approvals for Kinder Morgan to start work on a tunnel route through Burnaby in mid-February, which Burnaby said it was seeking leave to appeal just two days later.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan has long been against the pipeline, citing the damage and disruption it would cause his city.
On Feb. 22, Notley dropped the wine ban after Horgan said that his government was preparing a constitutional reference case to demonstrate its right to impose new restrictions on the transport of Alberta crude oil.
Since then, talk about the pipeline had cooled until Notley Monday that not only would Alberta fight Burnaby’s appeal but threatened to bring back the wine ban and institute “other retaliatory measures” if B.C. didn’t stop fighting Trans Mountain.
