VICTORIA — Alberta’s premier began her pipeline sales pitch to British Columbians on Monday by arguing that the economic benefits to the country, and B.C.’s Interior in particular, more than offset the environmental risks posed by additional oil tankers in coastal waters.

Rachel Notley told a Postmedia News editorial board in Vancouver that the recently approved $6.8-billion Edmonton-to-Burnaby Kinder Morgan Pipeline expansion project will mean good-paying jobs for the province’s workers, both in British Columbia and for those who travel to work in Alberta’s oil and gas sector.

“Listen, I know full well there are passionate advocates who are opposed to the pipeline and who are very concerned about the coastline,” said Notley. “That is fair. But sometimes there are other issues that need to be considered as well. Jobs are important, economic prosperity is important. That matters to people too.

“Perhaps we are more acutely aware of that issue right now in Alberta because of what’s happened to our economy as a result in the drop of the price of oil. But when I’m in (B.C.’s) Interior, I see that already there. I see that people are concerned about being able to have a path to the kind of economic security that allows them to take care of their families, and keep food on the table, and the roof over their head.”

Notley is in B.C. for two days of meetings to try and bolster support for the Trans Mountain project, which will twin an existing pipeline to allow three times the oil from Alberta to B.C.’s coast. 

Although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced approval for the project last week, the pipeline faces fierce opposition from some B.C. environmental groups, First Nations leaders and local politicians who say the province risks environmental disaster by allowing a seven-fold increase in oil tanker traffic in coastal waters.

“There’s always risks,” said Notley. “But the fact of the matter is, based on history, this is an unlikely thing. There’s more that we can do to make it more safe, and that’s what the federal government has committed to, and the shippers and Kinder Morgan have committed to, and I think it will actually raise the bar for all shippers out of this port.”

Ottawa promised $1.5 billion in additional marine protection and Coast Guard resources last month, but B.C. has asked for more details.

Notley argued that Alberta’s oil accounts for 20 per cent of Canada’s annual exports, and yet the economy “is put in a straitjacket” because the main buyer is the United States, which will only pay two-thirds of market value. Expanding the Trans Mountain Pipeline opens up more sales and profits to Asia.

“When that much of your export is made up by one product, to sell it for two-thirds of the price because you can’t figure out how to get it to the customer who is prepared to pay the actual price is silly,” she said. “It’s not good economics. It’s not good management. I’m a New Democrat, and here I am talking about these things. But this is all ultimately in the public interest.”

The pipeline expansion could account for an additional $3 to $5 per barrel, argued Notley. Clark has said B.C. should get a share of Kinder Morgan’s extra profit. Notley said she’s “not engaging in that conversation” and it’s up to B.C. and Kinder Morgan to negotiate.

Notley tried to steer clear of B.C.’s May 2017 provincial election, and a rift with her B.C. NDP counterparts campaigning to kill the pipeline. She met with B.C. NDP leader John Horgan on Monday evening, and will meet Premier Christy Clark in Ottawa later this week.

Wilderness Committee campaigner Peter McCartney said Notley’s visit was a political manoeuvre rather than a real effort to talk to British Columbians.

“It’s all for image’s sake,” said McCartney. “If she wanted to convince the people of British Columbia, she would come out here and face the protesters that are actually opposed to this project.”

Doubling down on an industry that fuels climate change is not a responsible way forward, despite the fact that workers in Alberta are hurting from low oil prices, he added.

He said her visit will not change opponents’ minds.

The Wilderness Committee is not planning any public demonstration to Notley’s visit, and neither is the group Burnaby Residents Opposed to Kinder Morgan Expansion.

Karl Perrin, a spokesman for the Burnaby pipeline opposition group, said while they understand Notley is doing her job and that normally they would align with a New Democrat leader’s position on climate change, the Alberta premier’s pitch will not change their opposition to the project.

“It will get built over my dead body,” said Perrin.

Notley said her government’s climate change plan should reassure B.C. residents that the Kinder Morgan expansion doesn’t mean expanded greenhouse gas emissions because her government has capped annual emissions from the oil sands at 100 megatonnes, regardless of whether the pipeline is built.

The Alberta climate plan also promises to phase out coal burning power plants (which currently account for 60 per cent of all coal burned in Canada annually) by 2030, and institute a carbon tax that rises to B.C.’s level of $30 per tonne by 2018 before increasing at a federally set rate.

“I know there’s roughly two streams of opposition in B.C.: There’s the coastal safety stream and then there’s the pipeline as a symbol for climate change,” said Notley. “So what we’ve done in Alberta is really significant. It is, I would argue, the most ambitious action on climate change prevention in North America and most people outside of Alberta don’t know about it.”

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