Lakeland MP and Conservative Shadow Minister for Natural Resources Shannon Stubbs says she doesn’t think the country is any closer to construction on the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Early on Friday the National Energy Board announced its recommendation that the expansion on the pipeline is built. The group says the pipeline expansion is in the national interest and should see a thumbs up with 16 new recommendations on top of 156 conditions.
In a release issued Friday, Stubbs says with the Liberals still at the helm, actual construction happening is still up in the air.
“Today’s recommendation from the National Energy Board, while positive, does not get us anywhere closer to the pipeline getting built. All it does is put the decision back in the hands of the same Liberal cabinet that failed to start construction in the first place.”
Stubbs goes on to say the review wasn’t necessary in the first place.
“Instead, the Liberals picked the lengthiest, costliest, and most uncertain option by directing the NEB to undertake a 22-week reconsideration, further delaying progress on the Trans Mountain Expansion. Nothing has changed. The opponents of the project simply used this time to prepare their next wave of legal challenges.”
The project has been in limbo since last August when the Federal Court of Appeals overturned approval of the pipeline. The energy board says its newest approval takes the objections of the court into consideration.
A full release from Stubbs is available on her Facebook page.