Kenney disappointed after Premier Notley pulls back from B.C. trade dispute

United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney not happy over the fact the Alberta government folded in the trade war with British Columbia.

Speaking to reporters in front of McDougall Centre in Calgary, Kenney says Premier Rachel Notley blinked first in this battle and allowing BC to refer this to the courts will only create further delays.

The dispute started with B.C. banning bitumen transports from Alberta in a bid to stop the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion from being built. As part of retaliations, Alberta banned all imports of wine from our neighbouring province.

The leader of the opposition says if he were premier, he would have taken retaliatory measures even further.

“So I’m calling on Premier Notley to demand that the federal government step in right now to get Justin Trudeau back from his costume tour of India and to act in our economic interests right now, by invoking section 92(10)(c) of the Constitution, declaring that the Trans Mountain Pipeline is in the national interest,” said Kenney.

Section 92(10)(c) of the Constitution Act, 1867, grants provincial legislatures in Canada the authority to legislate on:

10. Local Works and Undertakings other than such as are of the following Classes:

(c) Such Works as, although wholly situate within the Province, are before or after their Execution declared by the Parliament of Canada to be for the general Advantage of Canada or for the Advantage of Three or more of the Provinces.

Kenney is upset that Notley is okay with the B.C. government going to court to see if they can legally block the project, as he believes it is just another delay tactic that could take two to four years.

“Since last July, when the NDP came to power in B.C., I called on our Alberta government to get tough, to have a fight-back strategy, to show that there will be repercussions if British Columbia jeopardizes the construction of that pipeline.”

He adds these are the same types of tactics that killed Energy East.

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