Trudeau faces questions over the pipeline during visit to Calgary

May 16 2018, 3:17 am

Justin Trudeau was in Calgary Tuesday to make an announcement about investment in the city’s Green Line Light Rail Transit project, but was faced with questions surrounding the Kinder Morgan Pipeline project.

Trudeau initially met the questions with an explanation that the pipeline will be built and that it is in the national interest, but, after further question about if he could say anything new to reassure supporters of the project — and his critics — Trudeau took a somewhat different tone.

“Let’s be honest about these things,” Trudeau said.

“There isn’t anything that I can say that will reassure some of my critics who have such little faith in my government getting anything done for them.”

Pipeline-related chants could be heard at the press conference, and Trudeau even pointed out a pro-pipeline sign that some attendees had been holding.

“I don’t think there’s any magic phrase I can say that will have critics and skeptics sort of put down their criticism and say ‘oh, you know what? The prime minister reassured me today,'” he said at the Tuesday press conference.

“So I’m not speaking to them. I’m speaking to the rest of Albertans who have watched for 10 years under the Conservative government where there was a tremendous amount of boosterism for Alberta, there was an oil sector-first mentality that didn’t actually deliver a single kilometre of pipeline to market.”

He explained that the prior government had failed to get a pipeline built to the Canadian shore because it failed to take the environment into account. According to the Prime Minister, the only way to accomplish the project would be to focus on both the economy and environment.

“There are premiers to the east of us, directly, that do not like the price on carbon, there are premiers to the west that aren’t crazy about the pipeline, but I say to all of them, ‘this goes together.’

“That is the entire story.”

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