Rachel Notley has issued another threat to B.C., throwing fuel onto the fire raging over the fight between the two provinces over Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
During the throne speech on Thursday, Notley said that her government is readying legislation that would see a reduction in the amount of oil leaving Alberta.
The restriction, she says, would shift Canada’s focus onto lost jobs and a drop in revenue.
"Our key focus is getting people's attention on the matter," Notley told a news conference Thursday prior to the speech from the throne to open the next session of the legislature.
"We're not interested in creating any kind of crisis in any way, shape or form. We're going to be measured. We're going to be careful."
However, she wasn’t clear on if the oil bottleneck would be directed just towards B.C. or the rest of Canada as well.
The move is similar to what UCP leader Jason Kenney had been pushing for weeks, but Notley had been backing off from, saying that it would hurt Alberta jobs too severely.
Alberta already imposed and then backed away from a ban on B.C. wine, aimed at punishing our neighbouring province for trying to impose its own regulations on the federally approved Trans Mountain project.
The $7.4B project, aimed at tripling the capacity of the existing line, has since been bogged down with permit fights and challenges from the Horgan government.
(With files from the Canadian Press)
