David Eby says he doesn't get why Ottawa is focused on pipeline, not B.C. softwood

British Columbia Premier David Eby says he doesn't understand why Ottawa continues to push a new oil pipeline from Alberta, while failing to include B.C.'s softwood lumber industry in its latest round of tariff relief.

He says it's unclear to him why Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week that a new pipeline is "more likely than not," when no private proponent for the project has yet come forward.

Eby says B.C.'s "real projects" in the energy sector "deserve at least as much respect" as the pipeline being touted by Alberta, which he says still remains unrealized in "any real way." 

The federal government separately announced on Monday another $1.5 billion in tariff relief, but without any additional money for softwood lumber. 

Eby says he keeps trying to figure out why softwood lumber gets treated differently to other industries that have received support, such as the steel and automobile sector.

He says unfair U.S. tariffs are decimating B.C.'s softwood lumber industry, and it needs as much help as industries closer to Ottawa.

"I know we are a little further away, but the jobs here are just as important to Canadians as the jobs in the other tariff-affected sectors," he told a news conference that was announced on short notice on Monday morning.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito