OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s weekend summit on the fate of the Trans Mountain pipeline has failed to ease tensions over the controversial project.

One day after the emergency meeting, his government is being attacked from both sides of the political spectrum, staunch opponents in British Columbia have vowed the pipeline expansion will never be built, and Alberta has introduced new legislation that could restrict vital oil and gas exports to its western neighbour.

The frenzy of activity came after Trudeau interrupted a foreign trip to return to Ottawa to discuss the pipeline expansion with the premiers of B.C. and Alberta, NDP leaders who are at loggerheads over the project. Earlier this month, Kinder Morgan, the Texas-based company behind the $7.4-billion project, suspended “non-essential” spending and threatened to drop the pipeline altogether if opposition can’t be smoothed over by May 31.

Trudeau responded Sunday by saying Ottawa will provide some sort of financial backing for the pipeline — details of which will be sorted out in closed-door negotiations with Kinder Morgan — and that his government will pass legislation to assert federal jurisdiction over oil pipelines that cross provincial borders. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley similarly pledged to offer financial support to ensure the pipeline is built, and on Monday, her government in Edmonton introduced a new bill that will give its energy minister more powers to restrict oil and gas exports.

“The bill sends a clear message: we will use every tool at our disposal to defend Albertans (and) to defend our resources,” Notley said Monday, adding that the bill is not aimed at punishing B.C., which gets much of its energy from shipments along the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, which has been operational since 1953.

Even so, opponents of the pipeline were just as assertive in denouncing the project that would nearly triple the capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, which runs from Edmonton to the B.C. city of Burnaby, to carry bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands for export on fuel tankers from Burrard Inlet.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said he was “embarrassed” Trudeau and Notley are “kowtowing” to Kinder Morgan’s May 31 ultimatum, and questioned the influence of the “multinational corporation” on the Canadian government.

“This is simply obedience to corporate will,” Corrigan said during a press conference with Indigenous leaders on Monday. “We’ll continue to fight this project to our last breath.”

Stewart Phillip, Grand Chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, accused Trudeau of breaking promises to renew the federal government’s relationship with First Nations by approving the pipeline expansion without the consent of all affected communities. He said Canada’s courts have ruled that consultation isn’t enough to approve resource projects in Indigenous territory, and predicted the Liberal government’s repeated assertions that the pipeline will be built have only fuelled opponents’ will to stop it.

“If the threats continue, (the opposition) will only become more entrenched,” he said. “The answer is still no. The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline will never be built.”

Speaking in the House of Commons, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr defended the pipeline, and said the government engaged in “unprecedented consultation” before approving the project in December 2016. He said 44 communities signed benefit agreements with Kinder Morgan on the project, including 33 in B.C.

“We know that projects like this don’t achieve consensus everywhere. We do know that they’re in the national interest,” Carr said.

Phillip countered that there are still communities along the pipeline route that don’t support the project, including the Tseil-Waututh on Burrard Inlet, and the nearby Squamish Nation, which would see increased oil tanker traffic off the coast of its territory.

“No one expect our own nation can give consent for our territory,” said Khelsilem, a Squamish council member, during Monday’s press conference.

Meanwhile, opposition parties peppered the Liberals with questions about the pipeline during Question Period. Conservatives repeatedly asked “when will the pipeline” get built, after party leader Andrew Scheer accused Trudeau of failing to act quick enough to reassure Kinder Morgan that opposition wouldn’t stop the pipeline, and said the Liberal government’s revamp of the environmental assessment process and plan to impose carbon pricing across the country have driven investors from Alberta’s oilsands.

“The reason why the stakes are so high for Trans Mountain is because of the government’s disastrous energy policy from start to finish,” Scheer said in the House Monday.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said the government is running “roughshod” over Indigenous rights in its efforts to meet Kinder Morgan’s deadline, while the party’s leader in the House, Quebec MP Guy Caron, said it’s not clear that the federal government has sole jurisdiction over the pipeline.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called on Ottawa last week to refer the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada, as B.C. Premier John Horgan pursues a ruling on whether his government in Victoria has power over environmental regulations related to the project, such as rules affecting oil shipments by sea from the pipeline terminal in Burnaby.

The government has dismissed the possibility of a Supreme Court reference, and Carr added Monday that the project was already approved by the B.C. government — though it was the Liberal government that Horgan’s NDP defeated in last year’s provincial election.

Speaking outside the House, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said the Liberals are caught up in an attempt by Kinder Morgan to “blackmail” the government for financial support for the pipeline, and questioned why the federal government should spend taxpayer money to help the Texas company.

“It’s a grand pretext. It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s a con job,” she said. “If this prime minister wants to be — and God, I want him to be; I so want Justin Trudeau to be the climate leader the world wants — then don’t let Kinder Morgan be an albatross around your neck that makes you break promise after promise.”

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Carr disagreed that the government is being blackmailed.

“Kinder Morgan is expressing a frustration with uncertainty,” he said.

“They’re on the verge of having to make very important financial decisions about how much to invest in the project. There’s already more than a billion dollars in investment. And certainty clearly is important to them. We understand that, and we will seek to give more certainty to the project.”

With files from The Canadian Press

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