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Kinder Morgan approval means honeymoon over for Trudeau

So much for that bromance between Mayor Gregor Robertson and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Justin Trudeau's approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline may cool his 'bromance' with Mayor Gregor Ro
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline may cool his 'bromance' with Mayor Gregor Robertson. Photo Dan Toulgoet

So much for that bromance between Mayor Gregor Robertson and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Anyone who thinks that Robertson had a heads up on Tuesday’s announcement from Trudeau approving the Kinder Morgan pipeline would be accused of smoking something.

While Trudeau was on his feet in Ottawa, Robertson was off in Mexico, ironically at a C40 Mayor’s Summit where municipal leaders from around the globe were meeting to seek “urban solutions” to climate change.

Further, while Alberta’s Premier Rachel Notley was in Ottawa for this announcement, which will most certainly help both the Alberta economy and her sagging popularity, B.C. Premier Christy Clark was back home in Victoria and  appeared to caught off guard. Clark got her moment in the sun with the approval by Ottawa of the LNG proposal.

Instead of a statement from Clark, we got a bit of a boiler plate release from her Environment Minster restating the five conditions that would have to be met for B.C. to buy into the Kinder Morgan expansion.

On Wednesday morning in a Vancouver news conference, however, Clark said she was not surprised at all. In fact she was “pleased with the progress we’ve made” in meeting her five conditions. She lauded the Ocean Protection Plan put forward by Trudeau’s government. While there were still “a few details” to be worked out to make sure B.C. got its “fair share” of jobs and revenue from the project, she was well along “the path to Yes.” She added that she expected to be able to approve the project before next spring’s provincial election.

But you have to wonder just what political damage this announcement will do to Trudeau out on the West Coast. He did manage to hook the Kinder Morgan decision together with his continued rejection of the Northern Gateway pipeline that would have run through some of B.C.’s most sensitive environmental areas, including the Great Bear Rainforest. The First Nations people were ecstatic with that decision and with Trudeau’s decision to turn the moratorium against oil tankers of the northwest coast into a law.

But down here in the vote rich southwest corner of the province, whatever honeymoon he has managed to draw out on his election until now will well be over.

A number of Vision Vancouver councillors have been in full court press mode for weeks, if not months, rallying people to oppose the Kinder Morgan project. It was almost as if they knew they were in for a fight they may not win.

And it is not just Robertson and his council colleagues who were appalled at the prospect of tanker traffic going up to seven times the number we are now seeing running through Burrard Inlet; six other mayors have expressed opposition to this project.

That includes the mayors of New Westminster, North Vancouver, Victoria, Squamish, Bowen Island and the mayor who has fought hardest and longest to try and stop this project, the mayor of Burnaby, Derek Corrigan.

Last spring, they were all calling for Trudeau to “step in and introduce a fair and rigorous public hearing process that takes into account input from all stakeholders and cross-examination of witnesses, the same standard applied previously for all other projects.”

You could say that what they got was Tuesday’s announcement, one where the Prime Minister argued that you can balance resource extraction and economic growth with environmental protection.

Robertson’s press release had him fuming: “Vancouver’s economy created 94,000 new jobs last year and significant tax revenue for Canada. It doesn’t make sense to jeopardize that success with the risk that comes with an expanded Kinder Morgan heavy oil pipeline and more tankers. As I have had said repeatedly, it is not worth the risk.”

For all the times he has repeatedly said that, Trudeau wasn’t listening, didn’t believe him, or didn’t care.

When Trudeau was asked if he was putting the needs and desires of Alberta ahead of those of B.C., he said what he was doing was in the best interest of the country.

He may find it is not that simple.

And he may also find that while First Nations leaders are pleased about the Northern Gateway decision, they will still stand with municipal leaders and environmentalists in the southern part of the province to oppose what they see as a project that will inevitably lead to an environmental disaster.

@allengarr

Note: This story was updated since first posted.