Pipeline MOU a ‘distraction’ from real projects, opportunities: Eby

B.C.’s premier says talk of a new pipeline through the province is needless distraction and Coastal First Nations are adamant it will never be built.

Premier David Eby said efforts to enable a new pipeline through B.C. have created an unnecessary “distraction” from major projects that are already underway in the province.

He made his comments outside the legislature Thursday, after the federal government entered into a memorandum of understanding with Alberta that could pave the way for a pipeline. B.C. was not included in the negotiations.

Eby said he is wary that the “fictional, non-existent, unfunded project” has become an “energy vampire” that could undermine other B.C. projects that are closer to being actualized.

“It cannot draw limited federal resources, limited Indigenous governance resources, limited provincial resources from the real projects that will employ people, provide the country with money that we desperately need, and provide investment access to global markets to deepen our trade relationships overseas,” Eby said.

The memorandum of understanding says Ottawa’s commitment is contingent on the pipeline being approved as a project of national interest, and on the project providing “opportunities for Indigenous co-ownership and shared economic benefits.”

Eby called on Prime Minster Mark Carney to consult with Coastal First Nations who have been adamant in their opposition to another pipeline and steadfast that a tanker ban off B.C.’s North Coast remain in place—with no exceptions.

“There is no First Nations support for it,” Eby said.

“I look forward to the prime minister making good on his commitment to Coastal First Nations, in particular, that they will be at the table.”

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While Eby said the B.C. government should have been involved in the process of developing the MOU, he also said he is making a conscious decision to focus efforts and energy elsewhere.

“Our focus is on projects that we can actually deliver, that are going to go ahead. Spending an extended amount of time on a project that has none of the pieces that B.C. projects have—whether it’s private backing, a company advancing it, permits in place, a route—that’s not British Columbia’s priority.”

Eby also said, in his opinion, a recent decision that will see potash company Nutrien setting up a terminal in Washington state instead of B.C. can at least partly be attributed to the “distraction” the pipeline created for Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.

“It really pissed me off that we lost the Nutrien deal, because I think that was entirely avoidable. That is the one that gets under my skin. That is the one that makes me really unhappy,” Eby said.

“We cannot get distracted anymore by this notional project, and have it cost us real projects.”