EDMONTON – Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says the province is still out of the federal government’s climate change accord despite Ottawa’s plans to get the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion approved.
The federal government has given the National Energy Board less than six months to redo its environmental review of the pipeline and examine the impact of additional oil tanker traffic off the coast of British Columbia.
Notley pulled out of the federal climate change plan, which mandates putting a price on carbon emissions, after the Federal Court of Appeal overturned approval of the expansion project.
She says the province won’t rejoin the plan until the pipeline is approved.
Notley says the fight to build the pipeline has just begun and failure is not an option.
She says Alberta will hold the federal government’s feet to the fire, but wouldn’t say how the province will do that.
“We’ve come too far to turn back now,” Notley said Friday. “Tens of thousands of jobs are on the line. Billions of dollars in revenue for Canadian priorities is on the line. Our international reputation is on the line. Canada’s economic future is on the line. Those are the stakes.”