Alberta Premier Rachel Notley preached to the converted on Thursday when she echoed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s words.
“It will be built,” she assured business leaders at a joint Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, Calgary Chamber of Commerce and Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT) event at the Sutton Place Hotel in Edmonton.
“We feel pretty confident that we have the authority to control the export of our own resources under the constitution,” she said, adding she expects construction to resume this summer on Kinder Morgan’s controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Decked in red ‘Canada’ scarves, British Columbian business, labour and indigenous leaders joined counterparts one province over in a show of solidarity dubbed Federation Flight. The catalyst for the trip was escalating tensions around the pipeline, and a fast-approaching deadline from Kinder Morgan regarding the future of the project.
“We’re here in large part to break down misconceptions,” said GVBOT president and CEO Iain Black.
The mission was also to offer a narrative he says hasn’t been heard enough: that British Columbian businesses support the line, and are concerned it may be thwarted.
“This is truly a crisis of confidence in Canada,” said Val Litwin, president of the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce, which has supported the project since day one.
The one-day trip follows legislation from the Alberta government that empowers the province with the ability to halt oil exports to British Columbia.
Notley emphasized Thursday that her government does not wish to punish British Columbian businesses, however Litwin said concern that Alberta will turn the tap off is real.
An ongoing theme during the course of Federation Flight – from YVR to YEG and back again – was First Nations and indigenous participation.
Black said 10 indigenous leaders from B.C. participated in the initiative, and several from Alberta attended the Edmonton chamber event – sponsored by Ledcor and Bennett Jones. This includes remarks from Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild from the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations.
“We have debt,” said Keith Matthew, former chief of B.C.'s Simpcw First Nation, which signed an agreement with Kinder Morgan in 2007.
“If this project doesn’t go forward, it’s going to have catastrophic impacts on us as well.”
From the start, Black was clear that he spoke only on behalf of one organization: the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
Earlier this year, more than 450 businesses signed an open letter to Premier John Horgan, asking B.C. to oppose the Trans Mountain project, arguing it was bad for business.
Signatories to the list included technology founders, tourism operators and small business owners. On Federation Flight, small businesses and representatives from labour, transportation and manufacturing voiced their support.
Absent from the flight were federal political leaders, including B.C.’s three federal cabinet ministers.
Kinder Morgan has given the federal government until May 31 to provide the company with a clear signal its pipeline can be built.
