Alberta’s premier had a big announcement this week. Her government will be pitching the feds on a new bitumen pipeline that would run from the Alberta tar sands to the B.C. coast.
The only problem is, there’s no pipeline company attached. Danielle Smith is conjuring a project the same way Kevin Costner built a baseball “field of dreams” hoping the players would come. Which they did. As ghosts. Metaphor!
The project pitch alone will cost Albertans $14 million. But even that kind of money won’t change the biggest hurdle Smith herself has admitted: the north coast tanker ban. With large oil tankers restricted, there’s little chance Alberta will be able to ship their bitumen out from B.C.’s coast.
In 2019, Indigenous leaders and environmental organizations pressured Trudeau to ban oil tankers from the B.C. coast.They knew a bitumen spill in the rugged waters of B.C. would have devastating impacts on local AND global food systems, economies and culture.
That was as true then as it is today.
Marilyn Slett, chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council and president of the Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative, said in response that First Nations fought for decades to get the federal moratorium.
“As the rights and titleholders of B.C. North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii, we must inform Premier Smith once again that there is no support from coastal First Nations for a pipeline and an oil tankers project in our coastal waters.”
What will Danielle Smith do next? Her pitch to get government support from a federation she’s hinted at wanting to leave for a pipeline with no owner is hollow. And B.C.’s premier came out to agree with Indigenous communities reaffirming there will be no overturning the tanker ban. But a larger, more diabolical plan may be in the works…
