B.C. Expands ‘Fair Share’ Pipeline Policy to Trans Mountain

B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake | BCBusiness
B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake outlines a list of five demands for pipelines crossing through B.C.

After asking for a bigger cut of revenues from the embattled Northern Gateway pipeline, the provincial government has extended the same demands to Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipe expansion.

The spat between neighbouring provinces over oil revenues has swelled to include a 60-year-old pipeline running to the West Coast.
 
B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake made it clear Wednesday that Kinder Morgan’s proposed expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline had to meet a laundry list of mandates originally laid out for Enbridge’s Northern Gateway line.
 
Last week, government officials provided a list of five demands that Enbridge must meet before B.C. will allow the company’s $6-billion project to move forward.
 
At the heart of the escalating row is B.C.’s desire for a larger cut of the $81 billion in taxation revenues expected to come from Northern Gateway once it’s transporting crude oil across our province to the coast. As it stands, B.C. is set to receive just under $7 billion from the highly controversial project.
 
B.C. insists it isn’t picking a fight with Alberta, but is just standing up for the province and asking for our “fair share.” But is it fair to extend these new rules to an already existing pipeline?
 
The Trans Mountain project isn’t exactly breaking news — Kinder Morgan announced the $5-billion expansion back in April. If we wanted the company to pony up more royalties, shouldn’t we have made that clear months ago?