The case for buying Trans Mountain .......... The case for buying Trans Mountain
Kinder Morgan’s troubled Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project has become Canada’s political hot potato, with the federal government and Alberta trying (and so far failing) to get B.C. to allow construction to proceed.
Kinder Morgan itself has tapped the brakes, saying that it can’t justify continuing to spend on the project when the political context is so uncertain. A meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and B.C. premier John Horgan yesterday did little to break the logjam. Stephen Maher says the increasingly likely option is for the governmnt to buy the pipeline outright:
In 1993, when the Hibernia project off Newfoundland was in trouble, Brian Mulroney put $2.7 billion into it, which has, as it happens, paid off handsomely for Canadian taxpayers.
Trudeau is likely to do something similar now to save the Kinder Morgan pipeline. He could even buy the whole thing and sell it back to Kinder Morgan when it is completed.
A deal like that would help Notley, send an important message to international investors, allow Trudeau to be seen to be taking action on the economy and take away a cudgel from Kenney. And it would allow Horga