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“We can’t move the seasons in Canada. There are certain seasons during which you can do certain things. Mobilization for construction, the opening and closing of windows for clearing activities, materials to be ordered – we’re on top of all of that right now,” he said.

“We don’t have the ability to just kick the can down the road. We have to make a decision and we made it. It’s difficult because of those other considerations but it is an easy decision to make for investors.”

He said the end of next month was chosen as a deadline due to the construction timeframes required by the project, and expressed reluctance that the project could be delayed until next May.

“We don’t have control over that or control over timing and we don’t purport to say – this is what you must do or by when,” said Kean. “We don’t have the power to convene governments into these discussions but we are expressing our openness to participating in that process.”

Kean’s original statement goes on to note that while the project has support from the federal government and the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the province of British Columbia and its government has continued to be a barrier to the project’s progress.

“The fact remains that a substantial portion of the project must be constructed through British Columbia, and since the change in government in June 2017, that government has been clear and public in its intention to use ‘every tool in the toolbox’ to stop the project,” he said.