During Premier Christy Clark's visit Friday to Prince George, she held no meetings with Enbridge officials.
While some of the staff from the local Enbridge office spoke with her briefly at her Chamber of Commerce lunch, nothing more than polite courtesies were exchanged.
"The Joint Review Panel will be in Prince George next week; we will be there in the cross-examination," said Clark. "They are a proponent and we are cross-examining their position. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to meet with them."
While at the luncheon podium, she reiterated the five conditions that she wants met before Enbridge can lay its petroleum pipe from the Alberta oilsands through to the Kitimat coast.
They are to obtain all necessary consents from the environmental review process, set out a world-leading plan to safely haul the oil from Kitimat port out to open ocean, set out a world-leading plan to pipe the oil safely across B.C., prove that First Nations are meaningfully and actively included in the venture, and finally devise a plan along with the federal government and the Alberta government that brings appropriate economic benefits to British Columbia.
"Three are about the environment, one is about First Nations and one is about B.C.'s fair share of benefits. All five must be met," said Clark. "As it is now, B.C. would receive eight per cent of the benefits but assume almost 100 per cent of the risks."
Alberta premier Alison Redford met briefly this week with Clark when the B.C. boss was east of the Rockies. It was a meeting that produced no agreement on reshaping the Enbridge revenue deal.
"I wasn't expecting a lot of progress, it was more of a courtesy call because I was in town," Clark said. Alberta has contended throughout that no changes would be made on their part to the revenue-sharing formula.
Assuming all of the criteria is satisfactorily met, would Clark set aside the incoming Enbridge revenues for environmental disaster response in the event of a pipeline leak or tanker spill?
"We have to sit down and agree what the total quantum of money even is," Clark said. "I don't know the answer to that, because we don't know yet what the first answer is. If the pipeline proposal were to succeed, there would have to be an environmental protection fund in place. But I think British Columbians expect some economic benefits from this, too, but we don't know yet what form that would take."
See Tuesday's Citizen for a preview of the Joint Review Panel hearings into the Northern Gateway Pipeline.
