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CALGARY — Economic damage will extend far beyond the fuel budgets of British Columbia residents if Alberta successfully enacts a bill allowing it to restrict oil and gas exports, observers say.

The Bill 12 legislation and the trade war escalation it might spark would damage Alberta and Canadian businesses and citizens as well as those in British Columbia, warned Greg D’Avignon, CEO of the Business Council of B.C.

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“By punishing British Columbia because of the actions of the government of the day — while it might feel good and I completely understand it — it actually has consequences people aren’t thinking about for the citizens of Alberta and our country as a whole,” he said Tuesday.

On Monday, Alberta introduced legislation that would allow the energy minister to use export permits to control how much and what products truckers, pipeline companies and rail operators can ship.

The province says it might use the legislation to fire back at B.C. if it continues to block the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in the courts. The dispute is headed for a showdown on May 31, the date on which proponent Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. has said it might cancel the $7.4-billion project unless it is convinced it will be allowed to proceed to completion.