Lorne Gunter: Eby's anti-oil stance could force Washington State pipeline route

How’s this for a win-win deal? Alberta lets Premier David Eby, his B.C. NDP government and radical, anti-development First Nations group live in their little “green” bubble west of the Rockies while Alberta finds an investor or investors to build a pipeline to the West Coast through Montana, Idaho and Washington state.

Earlier this week, that’s what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith suggested could happen if B.C. and First Nations insist on blocking a second oil pipeline from Alberta to the coast.

Alberta would prefer to ship to northern B.C. You know, national pride and all that. Plus the route is shorter, so therefore cheaper.

But if Alberta can get its oil to the West Coast, and from there on to the booming markets of Asia, what does it matter if that oil is loaded onto tankers in Prince Rupert, B.C., Longview, Wash., or some other Pacific Northwest terminal?

Eby has been adamantly against a second pipeline. He has insisted he will do what he can to stop a line to northern B.C. and he will stand in the way of any attempt to lift the Trudeau-era ban on seagoing tanker shipments along B.C.’s northern coast.

Eby has allowed that a second pipeline to the existing tanker terminal in Burnaby might be possible. He’ll think about it.

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But let’s save him the trouble of racking his brain over such a compromise. Let’s tell him right now he can have his little eco-Xanadu on the Left Coast, with slowed development and no added resource income. Alberta will find a route through less hostile territory.

Indeed, B.C.’s hostility to resource transportation is why Nutrien, the giant Saskatchewan potash exporter, decided to build a new $1-billion export terminal along the Columbia River in Washington rather than bang their heads against the wall trying to please Eby, his government and a consortium of First Nations that call themselves the Coastal First Nations.

Coastal First Nations are actually an anti-oil lobby group, funded by lefty American foundations, like the Tides Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, whose stated goal is to landlock Canadian oil.

Being anti-pipeline is nothing new for Eby. So much so, I’m surprised he has even suggested a pipeline parallel to Trans Mountain.

When he was attorney general of B.C. back in 2018, Eby instructed provincial prosecutors not to bring charges against scores of people who were squatting illegally on land belonging to Trans Mountain and blockading construction of the pipeline’s tanker terminal in Burnaby.

Defending the rule of law was less important to Eby than stopping Trans Mountain, if he could. Now, as premier, Eby wants Alberta and the pipeline companies to believe he can be persuaded to accept, in effect, Trans Mountain 2.0.

By why not rescue the committed eco-warrior from his pipeline dilemma and just say, “Fine, a pipeline and all the jobs, economic activity and government revenues it will generate are too upsetting to you, we’ll save you those sleepless nights and ask our southern neighbours for permission to construct a line across their territory.”

When Nutrien announced in November that it would build its new potash terminal in development-friendly Washington state, Eby and federal Transport Minister Steve MacKinnon described the move as a betrayal of the national interest.

But the national interest cuts both ways. It is just as much in the national interest, perhaps more so, to get large-scale projects built that advance the country’s economy, lessen our dependence on the U.S. and bring in billions to government coffers for hospital, schools, social and recreational services.

The premier of one province and a First Nations lobby group can’t just declare what is and isn’t in the national interest and decide for the whole country that a megaproject can’t go ahead.

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