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Around Rachel Notley’s office, the straw that broke Alberta’s back is known simply as “point 5.”

That’s what senior Alberta government insiders call the unexpected line in a B.C. government press release that threatened to block B.C.-bound shipments of bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands.

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The threat was the fifth item on a list of proposed actions in a new B.C. provincial review of the $7.4-billion Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project.

The Alberta-to-B.C. pipeline has been approved by Justin Trudeau’s federal government. It was also approved by Christy Clark’s previous Liberal government in B.C.

It’s a critical piece of infrastructure for Alberta, an economically battered province desperate to get its heavy oil to the B.C. coast for shipment by supertanker to Asia.

They don’t get to ever pass laws … deciding what goes into a pipeline, or even threaten to do it

But the pipeline is fiercely opposed by the new B.C. NDP government of John Horgan, who has vowed to use “every available tool” to fight it.