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The Liberals didn’t pump this up as a big national priority. Top billing went to pay equity, parental leave, pharmacare and other social measures.

But Trudeau’s talk with Notley showed that B.C.’s obstructionism is his most pressing regional problem, still near the boiling point despite the end of Notley’s wine boycott.

On Wednesday, Horgan is expected to release yet another storm of proposals, mainly about imposing extreme rigour on pipeline companies for spill protection.

By April 30, pipeline operators must submit plans for spill management, and then spend three years testing various spill simulations, Postmedia’s Vaughn Palmer says in a column outlining the measures.

“The provincial government has a responsibility to ensure there is a regulatory framework in place that protects its coastal resources,” the plan says.

Most of us thought that was a job for Ottawa, which is spending $1.5 billion on marine safety as part of the Kinder Morgan approval.

The way Horgan acts often mystifies Albertans. You’d almost think his province owned the ocean as well as the land.

It turns out that B.C., uniquely in Canada, does own its adjacent seabeds — in the Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca, Johnstone and Queen Charlotte.

By law, they are as much a part of the province as the Fraser Valley or the summit of Mount Washington.

This was decided in a 1984 Supreme Court ruling called the Georgia Strait reference. The great irony today is that Alberta sided with B.C. in that struggle against Ottawa.