Local Member of Parliament Bob Zimmer is happy the government is moving forward with the Trans Mountain Pipeline project, but says its unfortunate the feds had to step in and buy it.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced earlier this week the Liberals negotiated a $4.5 billion price to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan.
Zimmer says just because the feds bought the project doesn’t mean it will be completed right away.
“My concern would be they say they are taking over the project than it still takes 20 years to build because of red tape and it’s mucking up the work of a good project. I will be happy when I see the first weld put on pipe.”
With the purchase of the pipeline, this means it would be under the ownership of federal Crown corporation, which could be a significant change to Premier John Horgan’s court of appeal case.
“Premier Horgan still has an opinion about it and seems to be doing all he can to slow progress in the province,” added Zimmer. “I think he will look at other measures to keep that up, which is unfortunate considering the jobs in B.C. that will result from the project. I hope he may focus elsewhere but that hasn’t been the case in the past.”
Horgan stated the reference case doesn’t speak to a specific project, but talks about the transportation of diluted bitumen into the province by rail or pipe.
He has no plan to withdraw the case.
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