Notley threatens trade battle with B.C. over Trans Mountain – by Jeff Lewis and Mike Hager (Globe and Mail – February 1, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is threatening to launch a legal – and trade – battle over British Columbia’s plan to block the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, measures that could include targeting the westernmost province’s $10.7-billion Site C hydroelectric dam.

In an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Ms. Notley said her government is studying a range of legal and economic responses to a regulation B.C. is proposing that would prohibit increased shipments of heavy crude through the province.

The move, announced a day earlier by B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman, would effectively stymie Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.’s $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline. In prepared remarks delivered to the media before the meeting, Ms. Notley cited “interprovincial trade in electricity” as one area for potential retaliation.

The Premier did not take questions, but her office later said that could mean not buying power from the Site C dam, a massive hydroelectric project on the Peace River in northeastern B.C. that is years from completion.

“The government of Alberta will not – we cannot – let this unconstitutional attack on jobs and working people stand,” Ms. Notley said in prepared remarks.

For the rest of this article: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-to-face-consequences-over-attempt-to-block-trans-mountain-pipeline-expansion-notley/article37811068/