OTTAWA — Faced with an escalating battle between British Columbia and Alberta as well as a spooked investment community, federal cabinet ministers will gather Tuesday for an emergency meeting in search of a way to convince Kinder Morgan to go forward with its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
The House of Commons is in the middle of a two-week break, during which times cabinet rarely meets. But ministers are hightailing it back to Ottawa to try and salvage the pipeline project they green-lighted 17 months ago.
Kinder Morgan announced late Sunday it was calling a halt to all non-essential spending on the project, giving Ottawa a deadline of May 31 to convince the company and its investors that the pipeline can prevail over the opposition that now threatens to block it.
The fight between B.C. and Alberta escalated Monday as Alberta Premier Rachel Notley promised legislation this week that would, once passed, give Alberta the ability to reduce domestic oil supplies into B.C. Such a move would cause already high gas prices in B.C. to spike, ramping up the pressure from pipeline proponents on the province to back down.
B.C. Premier John Horgan, however, heads a minority NDP government that clings to power only with the support of three Green party members under an agreement to fight the pipeline. So far, he’s shown no sign of giving in.
The pipeline is within federal jurisdiction, but Horgan is trying to use provincial powers to limit how much oil — ultimately destined for export markets overseas — can flow through it, effectively killing any reason for expansion.
Notley said Monday she expects the federal government to follow Alberta’s lead and put economic and fiscal pressure on B.C. to back off. She also wants Ottawa to use the courts or legislation to assert its jurisdictional authority over the pipeline, and to put its money where its mouth is — either as insurance for worried investors or even as a stakeholder in the project.
Legal, regulatory and financial options are all being considered, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Monday. And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described a long conversation Sunday with Horgan in which he told him not to intervene in an area of federal jurisdiction.
Source: bc.ctvnews.ca
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
