OTTAWA – Alberta’s finance minister says Quebec’s resistance to a pipeline carrying western Canadian oil across its territory shows the provincial premier’s lack of understanding about the Alberta energy industry.
Speaking ahead of a federal-provincial finance ministers’ meeting today in Ottawa, Joe Ceci argues Alberta has been innovative in removing carbon from the oil it produces.
Ceci says the entire national economy will benefit if Alberta can transport its oil to international markets beyond the United States and he insists pipelines are the safest way to get crude to coastal ports.
His remarks come a few days after Quebec Premier Francois Legault said there’s no social acceptability for a pipeline that would carry what he called dirty energy through his province.
Legault says he’s been urging his fellow premiers to buy cleaner hydroelectricity from Quebec.
TransCanada Corporation had proposed the $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline to bring western crude through Quebec and onwards to New Brunswick before being shipped overseas — but the company abandoned the project more than a year ago citing market changes and government red tape.