Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen has no doubt in his mind who should be blamed for the ongoing delays of the Trans Mountain expansion project and the economic uncertainty surrounding NAFTA negotiations.
“This is becoming the most expensive scandal in Canadian history. (Prime minister) Justin Trudeau is now the owner of a $4.5 billion pipeline project he can’t even build,” he said.
“He bad-mouthed us and said you guys never got it done and said he would get a pipeline built. He said we never had social licence and he would get it, so it’s a big failure on his part for sure.”
Viersen’s comments were in response to an Aug. 30 Federal Court of Appeal decision that ruled the National Energy Board’s review of the proposal was so flawed that the federal government could not rely on it as a basis for its decision to approve the expansion.
The issue stems from a 2012 re-organization of the NEB that stopped it from examining the project’s impact on marine shipping, which would be a dramatic increase in tanker traffic that would threaten the already-endangered southern resident killer whale population.
The court also ruled that during the final phases of Indigenous consultations, the government only wrote down the concerns of coastal First Nations without actually taking those concerns into consideration. While many of these flaws occurred during the Harper government’s mandate, the Trudeau Liberals signed off on the project.
Less than two hours after the decision came down, shareholders of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. voted overwhelmingly in favour of selling the pipeline and expansion blueprints to the Canadian government for $4.5 billion. However, because of the ruling the government must now re-do consultations with First Nations and conduct a study on marine impacts of the pipeline, which could delay construction by at least six months.
In response to the ruling, Alberta premier Rachel Notley demanded the federal government appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court and call an emergency session of Parliament to legislate a way to speed up the process.
She has pulled the province out of the federal climate plan, meaning when the carbon tax increases to $40 a tonne across Canada it will remain at $30 in Alberta, at least until construction of the pipeline begins. Alberta’s own Climate Leadership Plan remains in place.
Viersen said he supports Notley’s decision to pull out of the federal plan.
“Alberta is joining Saskatchewan and Ontario in pulling out of the climate plan,” he said. “Which is what we’ve been saying all along is that’s not how the world works.”
As it currently sits, the Trans Mountain pipeline collects roughly $287 million a year in toll fees. Viersen suggested the next federal election could be a national referendum on pipelines.
“The next ballot question could literally revolve around build pipelines or don’t build pipelines,” he said. “Not just pipelines in general but major infrastructure projects.”
NAFTA nonsense
Also on top of Viersen’s mind are ongoing negotiations with the United States and Mexico over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which U.S. president Donald Trump has called the “worst deal ever” and has vowed to scrap if he cannot secure concessions from his neighbours.
On Aug. 28, Trump announced he had reached a free trade deal with outgoing Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, lambasting Canada for “unfair trade practices” and threatening to cut Canada out of the economic alliance unless the federal government made significant concessions by the end of the week.
Viersen said Trudeau dropped the ball on negotiations and suggested the NAFTA talks would never have been an issue with a Conservative government.
“Had we been in government, we would have done a thousand things differently,” he said. “The fact is we’re more ideologically aligned with Republicans to begin with. We have more relationships across the line with Republicans. That alone would have been much more helpful.”
Trump’s announcement kicked off a whirlwind of all-night negotiations between the Canadian and American delegations. Then, on Aug. 31, comments Trump made to a Bloomberg reporter were leaked to the Toronto Star. In those comments, Trump bragged he was stonewalling Canadian negotiators to force a favourable deal with the U.S.
Viersen said at this point Trump’s antics shouldn’t surprise anyone.
“The way Canada has been treated is unacceptable with this take it or leave it deal,” he said. “The Liberals were taking Trump at face value. Nobody is under any illusion of who Trump is and how he is going to play. It seems to me the Liberals are as aware of this as anyone yet they are refusing to play ball.”
He was surprised and expressed his disappointment that Mexico would negotiate without Canada at the table.
“Canada had initially said we stood in solidarity with Mexico on this deal, but now to be standing on the outside looking in is pretty frustrating,” he said. “I think now we’re in the worst possible position.”
While he was harsh on the Liberal’s handling of NAFTA, Viersen said Canada needed to do everything it could keep protections for its industries, including around issues such as supply management of the dairy industry.
“I would say this has been handled poorly the whole time. Now thousands of Canadian jobs are at risk,” he said. “This should have been their main focus.”
Following the leaked revelations, Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, announced that Canada and the U.S. would continue talks into the next week — past Trump’s Aug. 31 deadline.
