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Replacement pipe is stored near crude oil storage tanks at Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain Pipeline terminal in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada November 15, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

The end of 2016 finds Premier Christy Clark on the precipice of saying yes to the Kinder Morgan oil-pipeline expansion plans, with just a few details left to work out before she will declare that the project meets her five conditions.

The Globe and Mail asked some key stakeholders what outstanding issues remain – and put those questions to the Premier in an interview.

Tom Sigurdson is executive director of the B.C. Building Trades, a leading trade unionist who would disagree with the provincial NDP's stand against Kinder Morgan. He asked: "Premier, will you seek a commitment from Kinder Morgan to use a British Columbia work force on the pipeline?"

Read more: Kinder Morgan pipeline will be a dividing line, again, in B.C. election

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Ms. Clark was quick to say yes. "I'm working on that – that will fulfill part of the five conditions. I would argue that's one of the most important parts of it," she said. "There is nothing that will turn those communities [along the B.C. portion of the pipeline route] into unwelcome communities for Kinder Morgan than if they bring in workers from Alberta and across the country at the expense of local people."

Catherine Loiacono, a spokesperson for the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C., worries that opponents of the pipeline will get in the way of its construction.

"Activists, environmental groups and even the federal leader of the Green Party have threatened lawlessness if Trans Mountain goes through," she said. "Should [the project] meet your five conditions, what role will the province play to ensure workers' safety?"

Ms. Clark played down the risk: "We will protect workers and we will uphold the law. That's our job. But I think the predictions of doom and gloom are maybe overstated," she said. "I know political people make sometimes rash comments about what they will do, how far they will go, the 'just watch me' narrative. But I think that in the communities where this is being built, for the most part there is a lot of support."

Matt Horne of the Pembina Institute, which has criticized the Clark government for falling short of its climate action commitments, had a question about what isn't in the five conditions: "A big part of the public and government conversation about Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain expansion has been about climate change, but none of your five conditions consider climate," he said. "Why not?"

Ms. Clark responded that those greenhouse gas emissions are not B.C.'s problem. "In B.C., what we are focused on is B.C. emissions, not Alberta emissions," she said. "If Matt Horne has concerns about expansion of the oil sands … he should probably go talk to the Premier of Alberta."

However, the project is not entirely Alberta's emissions problem. During the federal review of the project, Kinder Morgan estimated that construction will create 844,000 tonnes of CO2 in B.C. As well, the emissions generated by operating tankers, barges and tug escorts to get its additional capacity to market would add another 68,100 tonnes of C02 equivalent annually.

Ms. Clark said B.C. has a plan to deal with marine emissions, in general, by turning the Vancouver port into a liquefied-natural-gas fuelling facility. "Because a huge amount of transportation emissions come from ships. We can make a very big contribution to cutting that down by turning them from diesel to LNG."

Lee Spahan is chief of the Coldwater Indian Band near Merritt. The existing Trans Mountain oil pipeline runs directly through the band's main village, within 100 metres of the wells that provide its only supply of potable drinking water.

During routine maintenance in 2014, Kinder Morgan discovered soil contaminated with oil around the pipeline by the Coldwater reserve lands. The company is still working on a remediation plan. Engineers hired by the band found hydrocarbons in the community well and identified the existing pipeline as a potential source.

Chief Spahan wondered how the Premier can say B.C.'s land spill response is world class – one of the five conditions: "How can the Premier be confident in saying it is safe, when we have test results that prove that wrong?"

Ms. Clark replied that she expects the province will soon complete its land-based spill response and although it won't prevent spills, it should help Coldwater address the cleanup. "The plan we have for terrestrial spill response will, I hope, go some way to supporting remediation for them. Sadly, there are spills of all kinds from pipelines around the province and we need to be better prepared."

The final question was from The Globe: Will 2017 find the Premier out on the hustings, telling British Columbians that this project is a good thing?

The short answer was no.

"It's [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau's government that went through all the science behind it and did all the work in considering this," she said. "It's really the federal government that needs to be defending the reasons for having made the decision. It's challenging for me to defend a decision that I didn't make."

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