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“If the path forward for the pipeline through B.C. is not settled soon, I am ready and prepared to turn off the taps,” she said at a news conference, stopping short of outlining how long that would take. “It could happen in 24 hours, it could happen over a much longer period of time.”

The back and forth between Alberta and B.C. capped a day that began with new threats by the federal government that it would indemnify Kinder Morgan’s financial risk with public funds to protect it from politically motivated delays in B.C.

Horgan rejected that statement, too, calling it “rhetoric and hyperbole” from a “Toronto-based finance minister.”

“I’m not causing any risks. I’m issuing permits as they’re asked for by the proponents,” he said. “I’ve joined two legal cases that were already underway and I’ve asked the federal government to join me in a reference to the constitutionality of a regulation change we want to make. They declined to join us, so I’ve made a reference on our own. These are not overly provocative statements, in my opinion, those are the normal course of events working with the rule of law, not allowing Mr. (Bill) Morneau to determine constitutionality, but the courts.”

Horgan also took at shot at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s inaction on the dispute between Kinder Morgan, B.C., Alberta and Ottawa.

“Mr. Morneau will do what he wants to do, and … if they have a plan, they should tell us what it is,” said Horgan.

Still, Horgan found himself not only fighting Alberta and Ottawa, but also the B.C. Liberal Opposition, which seized upon the issue of rising gas prices in Metro Vancouver and linked it to the Kinder Morgan project. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson called on Horgan to temporarily reduce the provincial fuel tax and the carbon tax to give motorists some relief at the pumps.