Rifts in "Team Canada" appear to be widening on the brink of a federal announcement on a potential pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast, with B.C.'s deputy premier even raising the prospect of legal action against the project.
Asked if she expects B.C. to file a court challenge against the pipeline that Premier David Eby has derided as a "fictional" project, Attorney General Niki Sharma said Tuesday she was "staying tuned to see."
It's the latest example of interprovincial sniping over the pipeline, with Eby dismissing it as a "communications exercise" from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Smith, meanwhile, has suggested that B.C. should get little say in the matter. She said Friday of B.C.'s opposition that "there was also a lot of sabre rattling in previous iterations of the British Columbia government and in the end the decision is the federal government's to make."
Eby has also made clear his displeasure with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's "alleged" involvement in talks about a pipeline to B.C., saying on Tuesday that it was "just the cherry on top."
Sharma said Tuesday that B.C. wanted respect amid the growing tensions among western premiers.
Media reports say the federal government is expected to announce a memorandum of understanding with Alberta this week that could include a pipeline to B.C.'s northern coast, but Sharma said the province has yet to see what is in the document.
"We want to figure out how to work together, and I think that has been the stance of the premier as a Team Canada approach," she said. "But we also need to be respected as a province in our viewpoints."
Sharma said any agreement must see governments abide by their constitutional obligations to First Nations.
"We also have the court system that can be used by First Nations to bring their concerns, when decisions are made by any level of government, in terms of judicial reviews or challenges to those decisions," she said.
Eby has said that the pipeline and the lifting of an oil-tanker ban off the B.C.'s north coast could threaten "real projects" worth of billions of dollars by eroding the "fragile consensus" among First Nations for resource projects in the northwest.
British Columbia unsuccessfully challenged the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, and Sharma did not rule out the possibility of a future legal challenge against any future pipeline, saying she was "staying tuned to see."
Another pressure point between Eby and his Prairies counterparts emerged this week in the form of a decision by Saskatchewan-based Nutrien to ship its potash to global markets through Washington state, bypassing B.C.
Eby said Moe didn't talk to him about challenges by the firm, and the decision "seems like the worst of both worlds" by exposing Saskatchewan's resources to the "whims" of U.S. President Donald Trump, while denying British Columbia a chance to expand its port capacity, Eby said.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad had quoted Moe as saying that Eby was "'not being part of Team Canada.'"
"It's obvious nobody seems to want to work with this premier," Rustad said in the legislature.
Eby responded by saying that it was "deeply disturbing and problematic" that Nutrien decided to go to Washington state instead of B.C.
But Eby added that Moe never raised Nutrien as an issue, even after raising the issue of getting Saskatchewan potash to global markets on multiple occasions.
"Despite that, never once did the Premier of Saskatchewan raise with me that Nutrien was considering Washington state, that there was an issue that we had to work together," Eby said.
"Instead, he and the leader of the Conservative party were having secret meetings with the premier of Alberta about a non-existent pipeline project that undermines support for major B.C. projects that will employ thousands of people and bring billions of dollars into this country."
Rustad said he did not have "secret meetings" with either Moe or Smith, but rather a "few phone calls" with them.
Carney said on Tuesday that B.C. and First Nations would have to agree to a pipeline, although Energy Minister Tim Hodgson's office told The Canadian Press that the government wouldn't give B.C. a veto over such a project.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards
