The recent environmental review panel's recommendation and the federal government's pending decision will go a long way to deciding the fate of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, but a less publicized report due Tuesday could also shape the future of the project.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark and her Alberta counterpart Alison Redford are expected to receive recommendations today from a group of deputy ministers who have spent the past six months examining the future of energy exports between the two provinces. They didn't deal solely with the Northern Gateway proposal but the spectre of the northern Alberta to Kitimat oil pipeline loomed over the deliberations.
Although the federal government holds the constitutional jurisdiction for inter-provincial pipelines, a serious objection by the B.C. government could make it more difficult for the pipeline to go through. In the wake of the positive environmental review, B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak said earlier this month her government wasn't in a position to give its approval to any new oil pipelines.
Polak said that none of the province's five conditions had been met, but the working group's report could provide Clark's government with a pathway to how their environmental, social and economic concerns can be addressed.
B.C.'s chief bureaucrat for natural gas development Steve Carr and Alberta's deputy minister of energy Grant Sprague led the working group tasked with findings ways for the two provinces to agree on what substances can be transported safely and how they should be shipped.
The deputy ministers went into the discussions with two agreed upon goals in mind, namely to open new markets for energy exports and strengthen the economy of both provinces by creating jobs through increased oil and gas development.
The terms of reference, which were released in October, stated that the governments believed if oilsands products were not shipped through pipelines than they would be shipped via rail.
Currently no infrastructure exists to export oilsands bitumen by ship if it were to be shipped via rail through Prince George to the north coast and no company has announced any intentions to build a terminal capable of loading tankers with the product.
Among the topics they explored were environmental protections that need to be in place in the event of a land or marine spill, appropriate consultations with First Nations and ensuring development is done in a responsible manner.
The group also spent time exploring ways any new heavy oil pipeline could meet Clark's government condition that it provide a fair share of the economic benefits to B.C. Both premiers have taken any royalty sharing off the table, but the working group was tasked with finding possible mechanisms to ensure the sharing of economic benefits.
Although the premiers are due to receive their copies of the report on Tuesday, a spokesman for Clark said the contents won't be publicly released until sometime in January.
