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Premier Rachel Notley says Alberta would buy the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion if the company wants out after May 31.

In an interview Monday, I asked her: “If Kinder Morgan were to say, ‘We’re gone, and if you want to buy, it’s yours’ – that’s what you’d do?”

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“That’s what we’d do,” said the premier.

The answer is almost too clear for politics. But it’s what she said.

Earlier I asked: “Are you assuring Albertans that even if Kinder Morgan does walk away, that it (the Trans Mountain project) will still be alive and kicking with Alberta in control, after May 31.”

“We have every intention that this will happen,” she said.

Anybody who thinks Notley is bluffing should remember that she’s already phased out coal, brought in a carbon tax, turned the electricity industry on its head and imposed a cap on emissions.

Notley won’t talk about the cost of buying the expansion or what other solutions might work. But she’s determined that the province, hopefully with Ottawa as co-investor, would control the project.