Carney sought to ease pipeline tensions with what he called a ‘positive agenda,’ in which Ottawa will work in partnership with B.C. and First Nations
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Prime Minister Mark Carney came to Vancouver on Wednesday to begin negotiations with Premier David Eby on B.C.’s priorities for his nation-building agenda, although their agreement to do so did not resolve the premier’s opposition to the idea of a new bitumen pipeline from Alberta to B.C.’s north coast.
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Before meeting with Carney at his government’s Vancouver cabinet offices, Eby noted the federal moratorium on oil tanker traffic off the north coast remains a “crucially important” condition for First Nations and many British Columbians.
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Their negotiations over nation-building projects, however, “will be an important discussion because together, we’re going to be building the critical infrastructure, the clean energy projects, the critical metals and mineral projects that will deliver national security, growth in the Canadian economy, jobs for British Columbians, and help us for those public services that British Columbians depend on,” Eby said.
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FP West: Energy Insider
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Carney called it a “positive agenda,” in which Ottawa will work in partnership with B.C. and First Nations. He also vowed that a new oil pipeline will only go ahead after full consultation with First Nations, respecting government’s duty under Section 35 of the Constitution.
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The intent, Carney said in his remarks with Eby, is “building in the right way.”
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“That means in partnership with First Nations, it means building with an emphasis on sustainability as well as prosperity,” he added. However, it will also mean building on “priorities set by British Columbians.”
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Before going into a closed-door meeting with Eby, Carney stopped for a breakfast fireside chat with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
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Carney offered the full-house audience of some 700 executives and business leaders a reassuring message about how central the province is in his campaign for economic independence, in a speech that YVR CEO Tamara Vrooman quipped was “the hottest ticket in town, next to the resale of FIFA.”
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The prime minister’s meeting with Eby was billed as a showdown over priorities when it comes to Alberta’s ambitions to build a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast.
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Eby was more diplomatic in his remarks Wednesday, but last Friday the premier complained that Carney’s efforts to advance a deal with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on the project was “rewarding bad behaviour” to mollify that province’s separatist movement.
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Eby’s anger last week was sparked by an interim agreement between Carney and Smith over setting new terms for the industrial carbon tax, setting it to a maximum of $130 per tonne by 2040, which is $40 lower and five years later than targets set by the previous government.
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Opposition continues to hang over the pipeline proposal. Last Friday, the group Coastal First Nations, a society that represents eight First Nations involved in the Great Bear Rainforest, renewed its refusal to accept such a project.
