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Colour us shocked.

The federal government, down in the polls after months of fallout from the SNC-Lavalin affair, has announced that its final decision on whether to reapprove an expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline will now be delayed. The pipeline was approved by regulators and government before, but those approvals were overturned by a court and have to be redone. The National Energy Board has now given its go-ahead and the cabinet has said it supports the project. The government is now working to determine what conditions must be attached before making a final decision to proceed. The decision was expected by May; it’s now been delayed until at least June. Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi says he does not foresee any further delays, but did not commit to making a decision before the federal election this fall.

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Albertans are rightly fed up with waiting

It’s easy to understand why the Liberals would prefer to punt a decision with massive political ramifications until after the upcoming vote, especially considering the recent beating they’ve taken on Indigenous reconciliation. But Albertans are rightly fed up with waiting, and recently elected a United Conservative government that will not be nearly as patient as its NDP predecessor (and outgoing premier Rachel Notley herself ended her term plenty frazzled by the endless runarounds she suffered). The National Post’s John Ivison reported this week on a push within the Prime Minister’s Office to get him to actually pull his government’s support for the pipeline if Alberta’s new government doesn’t do what Ottawa demands on climate policy, as if a vital economic project that could offer so much benefit to the country with a great deal of investment, jobs and needed revenue riding on it, were just another political football. The federal government has already spent billions of Canadian taxpayers’ money to buy the existing pipeline, entirely for the purpose of expanding it.

There is only one right choice here, and the government is most of the way to making it. Holding off for political convenience, instead of prioritizing the national interest, is appalling. But given this government’s record, it would no longer be the least bit surprising.