Jason Kenney and John Horgan to meet face-to-face

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The premiers of Alberta and British Columbia will meet in person for the first time this week. On the political spectrum, Jason Kenney and John Horgan are miles apart. Their respective legal teams are squared off over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. They are on opposing sides of the national climate plan.

Both men have indicated a willingness to give diplomacy a try in the long-running dispute over pipeline development. That will be tested this week.

Mr. Kenney is hosting the summer meeting of the western premiers in Edmonton. The meetings are supposed to help the four western provinces and northern territories to “work collaboratively, form closer ties, foster constructive relationships among governments.”

But last year’s session didn’t follow that script. The agenda called for talks on free trade, cannabis regulation and pharmacare funding. The Alberta premier at that time, Rachel Notley, boycotted the meeting because of the Trans Mountain dispute with B.C. Her delegates at the meeting then refused to sign a joint communiqué because Alberta’s pipeline allies – Manitoba and Saskatchewan – refused to sign a pro-pipeline declaration.

This time, the meetings are in Alberta and the topic of oil pipelines will come up. Ottawa approved the expansion project last week, and Mr. Kenney used that opportunity to suggest it is time for Mr. Horgan to “stop the campaign of obstruction” and start to work together.

“I would just appeal to Premier Horgan, he was elected, in part, to create jobs and grow the B.C. economy. This is an opportunity to do so," he told reporters. "Let’s be nation-builders together. Let’s realize the dream of confederation. Let’s be partners in prosperity.”

Mr. Kenney still has his “turn off the taps” legislation in his back pocket if Mr. Horgan continues to find new ways to stall the project that will get Alberta oil to tidewater. “I certainly hope there are no more delay tactics coming from the British Columbia government,” the Alberta Premier said. The legislation that would allow his province to cut off gas shipments to British Columbia. Alberta supplies as much as 80 per cent of B.C.'s domestic fuel needs.

On the other hand, B.C. still has to approve permits for construction along much of the pipeline route. Trans Mountain expects to resume construction in September, once approvals are received from the National Energy Board. The company says work will start at the export terminal in Burnaby, B.C.

Mr. Horgan has maintained that B.C. will not obstruct a duly-approved project, but he also says the province will be carefully vetting those permit applications. “Those are always looked at with diligence in the interest of protecting the public," he said.

If Mr. Kenney was genuinely expecting a new, co-operative tone from his B.C. counterpart now that Ottawa has bought the pipeline and approved it for a second time, he would have been disappointed.

Mr. Horgan suggested B.C. is prepared to join in the legal challenges launched by Indigenous communities seeking to stop the project.

“If the federal government sees themselves back in court, whether it’s the Tsleil-Wautuh, the Squamish or others, we’ll certainly take a good, hard look at that. If it’s in the interests of British Columbians to join them, we will.”

British Columbia, under Mr. Horgan’s NDP government, has done this before. The Tsleil-Waututh case – a consolidation of Indigenous, municipal and environmental challenges to the pipeline – resulted in the cancellation of the project last summer. The federal government had to put the project on hold as it moved to address the concerns of the court on Indigenous rights and the impact of oil shipments in the Salish Sea. In the time it took to re-approve the project, construction has fallen behind schedule and the cost of completion has increased.

The Tsleil-Waututh last week stated their intent to start another legal challenge against the pipeline. The Squamish Nation and Coldwater Indian Band will as well. British Columbia will have no difficultly finding another court case to attach itself to, if it chooses.

Mr. Horgan believes fighting the pipeline is in B.C.'s interests. But it’s not clear that B.C.'s legal team will be much help to the Tsleil-Waututh.

In the Federal Court of Appeal, B.C.'s legal argument was thoroughly slapped down – even though it was on the winning side in supporting the Tsleil-Waututh. In the unanimous ruling, the court found that the case brought by the B.C. attorney-general was without merit and relied on an “unduly formalistic" interpretation of the law.

British Columbia can ratchet up the pressure on Mr. Kenney’s government, but its success rate in court on this file suggests that diplomacy might be more successful.