The tussle between Alberta Premier Alison Redford and B.C. Premier Christy Clark over pipeline royalties was quantified in part this week with a report calculating how much the provinces could expect to benefit financially from three proposed pipelines, including the Northern Gateway pipeline at the heart of the premiers’ dispute.
If all levels of government reach an agreement, the three new pipelines—Enbridge Northern Gateway, Keystone XL, and Trans Mountain Expansion—will earn Alberta $253.7 billion in incremental tax revenues.
B.C. will only receive $4.6 billion over the next 24 years—far less than even Ontario’s estimated to $12.8 billion.
The estimates, calculated by the Canadian Energy Research Institute of Alberta in its Pacific Access report published Tuesday, come on the heels of B.C.’s demand for “reasonable” distribution of revenue.
In a report last week, B.C. outlined five major requirements that need to be addressed before the province can consider construction of the pipelines, one of which was fiscal benefits.
“Our government does not agree that we should bear the majority of risk with the minority share of benefits returned to our citizens,” the report reads.
Redford has rebuffed Clark’s demands for additional monies and experts are saying Clark has little power to challenge the pipeline legally due to federal jurisdiction over the matter. The federal government is a strong proponent of each of the proposed pipelines.
For Alberta, the most revenue would come in from Keystone at $121 billion and the least from Trans Mountain at $60 billion. For B.C. those are at $2 billion and $1 billion respectively.
If it goes ahead, Keystone will extend as far south as Texas to deliver oil to the American Midwest. The other two will cut through B.C to the coast, creating high-risk factors like possible oil spills and environmental pollution for the province.
At a July 30 press conference, former federal environmental minister David Anderson spoke against the Northern Gateway proposal.
“This coast is too fragile and the technologies are too inadequate to make this a safe proposition,” he said.
He also criticized Enbridge, saying the pipeline firm “clearly has a cowboy culture, quite inappropriate for building a pipeline in one of the most sensitive parts of the world.”
“Enbridge is perhaps the last company in North America that should be permitted to build a pipeline” he said.
At the same press conference, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said the union was prepared to fight Northern Gateway.
“Absolutely no way will we allow or tolerate the Enbridge Northern Gateway to proceed. We will fight this through the Joint Review Panel. We will fight this proposal in the courts, and if necessary, we will oppose this proposal on the land itself.”
An Angus Reid poll released Wednesday found that opposition to Northern Gateway remains strong among the B.C. public, with 59 percent of those surveyed opposing construction of the pipeline, compared to the 34 percent who support it.
Over half of respondents, however, said they could change their minds if some or all of the government’s five preconditions for approval of the project are met.
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
