Ottawa clears regulatory red tape for Trans Mountain pipeline

In anticipation of Canada’s plan to transfer the Trans Mountain pipeline to First Nations ownership, the federal government is changing the way it manages the pipeline, according to a notice published Wednesday in the federal government’s official newspaper, Canada Gazette.

The Canada Development Investment Corporation and Trans Mountain Corporation will no longer need permission from their top official, the council’s governor, to make transactions such as establishing subsidiaries.

“(These changes) would enable them to organize in a way that allows Trans Mountain to compete effectively in the sector and facilitates Indigenous economic participation in Trans Mountain,” the notice reads, adding that the change is a step toward transferring ownership of the pipeline to Ottawa-led groups by indigenous people.

Canada purchased the pipeline system in 2018. It could then transport 300,000 barrels of oil per day.

The federal government oversaw the expansion of the pipeline, which now carries about 890,000 barrels a day from Alberta to Canada’s Pacific Coast.

According to the Canada Gazette notice, the project was a “necessary and major investment in the national interest” and that adding the pipeline would increase the country’s GDP by $26.3 billion and create “thousands of middle-class jobs.”

Trans Mountain Corporation estimates that the pipeline and related port activities will emit approximately 400,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that’s about the same as the annual emissions from 95,000 gas-powered cars.

The expansion of the pipeline is controversial. Many First Nations leaders have spoken out against the pipeline’s environmental impact.

The chief of Coldwater First Nation raised concerns about the pipeline’s impact on groundwater near the country. Secwépemc’s mother, Miranda Dick, protested the pipeline because of its impact on water near her homeland.

However, Indigenous-led groups including the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group, Project Reconciliation and the Alberta-based Iron Coalition have expressed interest in purchasing the pipeline.

The new pipeline began commercial operations this month after years of regulatory delays and construction failures. In the six years since Ottawa bought Trans Mountain, its cost has gone from $7.3 billion to more than $34 billion.

Trans Mountain said it expects to load the first ship with crude from the expanded pipeline this month.

On Monday, the Dubai Angel tanker docked at the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, British Columbia, preparing to load the first cargo of crude oil from the pipeline.