Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs says she finds it hard to have confidence in the direction the Trans Mountain Pipeline is headed. The deadline that energy giant Kinder- Morgan set to help the federal government quickly find a private buyer for the pipeline has now come and gone.
Stubbs says the failure to find a company to take on the project is the start of a growing list of problems she sees for the project.
“The federal government has allotted an additional billion dollars to be put towards construction, whenever that will start. (The Liberal government) still can’t answer that specifically.”
It is expected that Kinder-Morgan shareholders will agree to a $4.5 billion buy from the Canadian government. The final cost on the actual expansion is expected to add another $7.4 billion onto that number.
Stubbs says she worries the government hasn’t been clear on how much this project will end up costing Canadian taxpayers in the long run. She says she asked former Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr for those answers back in June
“When construction would start; When it will be complete; When will it be in service to increase shipments of Canadian oil. The minister was unable to answer any of those questions. To date, the Liberals cannot provide any of those details.”
The federal government says it has no interest in being a permanent owner of the pipeline. Kinder Morgan had originally agreed to start construction this summer.