Notley promotes Trans Mountain jobs with Calgary pipefitters

Off the heels of a federal deal for the Trans Mountain expansion, Alberta’s premier took her pipeline parade to Calgary by visiting welders, pipefitters and other tradespeople who are looking for jobs with the project.

Rachel Notley spoke at the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Lodge 146 in the city’s southeast on Wednesday, and touted the prospect of jobs that would become available once construction on the Kinder Morgan pipeline resumes. While there was obvious support in the room, Notley also fielded questions about what she wants to see around construction sites that may be the target of protestors. The premier said she doesn’t expect protestors will be treated any differently now that Ottawa owns the project.

“Protestors have every right to articulate their disagreement. They don’t have the right to stop it from being built. The rule of law will be applied and will be applied in a careful and thoughtful way as it would be for any project. That doesn’t matter who owns it,” she said.

“So far, we’re 16 out of 16 in front of the courts so that’s one of the biggest places where the fight is actually working out.”

Earlier in the day, Notley appeared at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon where Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau spoke. Notley said the business community is cautiously optimistic but investor confidence is up. While Ottawa has said it doesn’t want to own the pipeline in the long term, the chance of Alberta keeping its stake in the project would depend on a few factors.

“Alberta’s unlikely to play a role on that until the project is completed because that’s the only point that which Alberta would have an equity interest. And at that point I think we would look at our options and conclude what is best for Albertan, what’s best for Alberta taxpayers in terms of the value we can get or conversely maintaining it,” said Notley.

The province committed to up to $2 billion in indemnity that will be paid once the pipeline is operational and it will be converted into an equity stake. Morneau said there are interested buyers waiting to pick up the project once Ottawa cuts ties with it.

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