Premier Christy Clark doesn't think it will be difficult for B.C. to get its share of the economic benefits if new heavy oil pipelines like Northern Gateway are constructed in the province.
Speaking to reporters at the conclusion of a Council of the Federation meeting Friday in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., on Friday Clark said the lone financial condition her government attached to new pipeline developments is attainable.
"I wouldn't expect that it's necessarily the toughest condition to meet because there's a lot of revenue that going to flow from that new incremental value from exporting heavy oil," she said.
Clark didn't say how B.C. might get its economic share since Alberta Premier Alison Redford has said her government won't share royalty payments.
The B.C. government first announced its five conditions last summer just before technical hearings began into Northern Gateway's northern Alberta to Kitimat dual condensate and oil pipelines. The first four items on the list deal with environmental and First Nations issues, some of which Clark suggested are not close to being met.
In particular, Clark said the federal government needs to re-commit to increased coast guard protection along the coast to meet the province's demand that a world-class marine spill response be put in place.
"They're going in the wrong direction on that," Clark said. "If we want to protect our coast they're going to have to step up to the plate in a big way."
A National Energy Board Joint Review Panel is currently preparing its final report to the federal government on the pipeline's environmental assessment. It will be available by the end of the year.
In its final argument B.C. said it couldn't accept the project as currently conceived and Clark didn't waver from that position Friday, but she didn't close the door on an eventual policy shift either.
"The project could still change, I suppose," she said. "We'll wait to see what the Joint Review Panel comes out and says."
Clark's comments came as she and Redford announced that B.C.'s deputy minister for natural gas Steve Carr and Alberta's deputy minister for energy Grant Sprague will meet soon to discus energy export issues. The senior bureaucrats are expected to report back to the premiers by the end of the year.
Northern Gateway will be among the topics discussed, but it's not expected to dominate the agenda.
Clark said her government knows the importance of getting energy to the coast - the creation of a liquified natural gas industry was a cornerstone in her recent election victory - but added that a social licence is needed for heavy oil projects like Northern Gateway to proceed.
Despite B.C.'s position on Northern Gateway, Redford isn't giving up hope that it or other projects could still go through.
"One of the things we will talk about are those five conditions and what they mean in real terms," Redford told reporters. "In terms of the people that elected [Clark] to grow the economy about a month ago and what we're doing in Alberta."
