Where was I? Oh, yes:
It’s not clear the Liberals can offer Kinder Morgan the kind of assurance it needs—not by May 31, at any rate. The B.C. government has since referred a series of questions to the province’s Court of Appeal asking whether it has authority to block the shipment of bitumen through the province; even if it is ultimately rebuffed, that is not going to happen before May 31.
The Liberals, meanwhile, have promised legislation clarifying and affirming federal jurisdiction over interprovincial pipelines, so as to deprive the courts of any wiggle room for the usual...finding of shared jurisdiction....The legislation, however, has yet to be produced. With just four sitting days left in the month, it is equally unlikely to be passed in time.
As we found out, there is no legislation coming forward, as was asked many times, especially as I mentioned, in the year and a half the opposition has been asking for a plan.
So the best the Liberals can offer Kinder Morgan is a series of promises of what will happen after May 31: we’ll pass the legislation, we’ll win in court, and we’ll compensate you for any delays. The finance minister this week described this as...insurance...against the costs of B.C.’s political gamesmanship. How much this might amount to he did not say, with good reason: he can’t. It’s a matter to be negotiated with Kinder Morgan.
This is true.
Whereas the Liberals cannot walk away: they’ve committed, publicly...to the proposition that “the pipeline will be built.”
It put the Liberals in a bit of a bind. They do not have a plan. There was no legislation coming forward. Decisions were made today on how we move forward.
I'll fast-forward through the article here. That went to my point.;
Another possibility being floated is the...federal Infrastructure Bank. You’ll recall the point of the bank was to be at arm’s-length from political interference, and thus able to raise funds from private investors on strictly commercial terms.
Now, we all know that the Asian infrastructure bank is building pipelines in Asia but yet not in Canada, which I find quite concerning.
It appears that the B.C. NDP solicitor general has said that legal challenges will not stop. Now the finance minister has just asked that it wouldn't, and would not confirm whether Kinder Morgan is in the national interest, which is mind-boggling as well.
We can move forward with this. We have Senator Black's bill. It has passed in the Senate. We could start dealing with this immediately. It's not as if this has surprised anyone.