BC and the Bloc Québécois team up against Alberta’s West Coast pipeline

Eby appears to have found his strongest ally yet in opposing Alberta’s proposed West Coast pipeline, as Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet escalated his attacks on the project.

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B.C. Premier David Eby appears to have found his strongest ally yet in opposing Alberta’s proposed West Coast pipeline, as Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet escalated his attacks on the project despite growing national support for expanding energy infrastructure.

Eby met with Blanchet last Tuesday to discuss what both leaders called major concerns with the Alberta–Ottawa memorandum of understanding regarding a bitumen pipeline to Asian markets, according to Postmedia. Blanchet told reporters he was willing to help Eby fight the proposal in Ottawa and framed the deal as a constitutional intrusion into provincial jurisdiction.

Blanchet has been vocal in opposing a pipeline for months.

“We will go on the world stages to say that Alberta is destroying the environment of the whole planet,” he said in October. “The idea of augmenting the volume of oil and gas, which is extracted and then burned and consumed, is irresponsible.”

However, he augmented his criticism the same day he met with Eby, arguing that a West Coast pipeline does not benefit Canada, Quebec, or First Nations.

“If Prime Minister Carney decides he’s going to cross B.C. territory with oil pipelines, when B.C. is hostile to that idea and that project, and he invokes the Constitution or something else to circumvent that province’s jurisdiction, that would be a precedent that could apply to Quebec,” said Blanchet. “When you talk about the dangers for the environment and the very weak economic impact, uh, well, the fact is that that cannot happen without receiving, uh, social acceptability from the people of Quebec and the First Nations.”

Eby has recently become one of the most vocal opponents of the pipeline, insisting that the project lacks a proponent and risks draining resources from other developments. However, Blanchet’s rhetoric marks the strongest support Eby has received from any Canadian political leader, and comes as online backlash to Eby’s position continues to build.

Despite Eby and Blanchet’s opposition, an Abacus Data poll asked whether Canadians support the idea of building a West Coast pipeline the day before they met. Nationwide, 55 per cent of Canadians supported the idea, while 18 per cent opposed. Support was strongest in Alberta, with 74 per cent backing the idea and 11 per cent in opposition.

Blanchet’s war against the pipeline might be out of step with what residents of his province want. The poll showed that support was lowest in Quebec, where only 42 per cent of Quebecers backed the idea of a West Coast pipeline, with 26 per cent opposed. Similarly, the poll highlighted that a majority of residents in B.C. support the pipeline.

“Albertans can clearly see how this agreement will improve investor certainty and unleash our energy industry, creating tens of thousands of jobs for Albertans and all Canadians,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

The MOU states that Alberta, Ottawa, Indigenous Peoples, and the industry must “work together cooperatively… to foster the conditions necessary for infrastructure, including pipelines… that will unlock and grow natural resource production and transportation in Western Canada.”

The federal government agreed to adjust the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act to facilitate construction if the pipeline is approved under the Building Canada Act.

However, several First Nations chiefs rejected the MOU and urged the moratorium to remain in place.

Indigenous resource lawyer Merle Alexander said that former prime minister Justin Trudeau struck a “grand bargain of balance” by approving the Trans Mountain pipeline and implementing the moratorium while rejecting the Northern Gateway project.

The Conservatives are set to table an opposition motion in the House of Commons this week to support the West Coast pipeline.

It will be the first test of where Parliament, including Carney’s Liberal caucus, really stands on the proposal to build a new West Coast pipeline.