Alberta Premier Rachel Notley met with her Ontario counterpart Kathleen Wynne on Friday to discuss a number of issues that concern the prosperity of both provinces.
One particular issue the pair of leaders discussed was the Energy East pipeline.
Wynne says that Ontario appreciates the need to transport Alberta’s oil to overseas markets. “The people of Ontario care a great deal about the national economy and the potential jobs this proposed pipeline project could create in our province and across the country,” she said in a release.
Notley lauded Wynne’s leadership, particularly in the area of climate change. “This province acted decisively to reduce its own emissions by phasing out coal. There was a cost to ensuring that Ontario has a clean and reliable electricity system, but there are also huge savings from clean air. Ontario is continuing to lead with the cap and trade program it will be phasing in shortly,” she said.
She added that Alberta and Ontario are also working towards the same goals.
The proposed pipeline would take Alberta crude as far east as an Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, N.B., and would be capable of carrying up to 1.1M barrels a day from the West to the East.
The project would include existing TransCanada (TSX:TRP) pipeline as far east as Montreal, plus new pipeline to be constructed through Quebec.
The pipeline has been a source of contention between the West and East for the past while, with Montreal-area municipal leaders sharply rejecting the plan, saying the risk of an environmental disaster far outweighs any economic benefit.
Alberta’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Deron Bilous, lashed out at the comments from Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre on Thursday, calling it ‘ungenerous and short-sighted’.
“Everyone loses if we destroy our resource economy."
Notley echoed those comments on Friday, saying that denying the fact that resource-based industries are part of Canada's economy "weakens all parts of the country."
TransCanada has said in the past that pipelines are safer and more environmentally friendly than rail for transporting oil.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall also said that Coderre’s statement was a sad state of affairs, especially because of the amount of cash Quebec will be receiving this year in the form of equalization payments.
"For the better part of the past decade the western Canadian energy sector and western Canadian taxpayers have supported a great portion of these transfer payments as well as the Canadian economy," he said in a statement on Thursday.
"Is it too much to expect that these Quebec municipal leaders would respond to this reality with generous support for a pipeline that supports the very sector that has supported them?"
Notley and Wynne also discussed the national inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women and the importance of developing green, diversified economies.
(With files from the Canadian Press)
