Notley opts out of attending premiers meeting due to pipeline dispute

May 22 2018, 11:38 pm

Rachel Notley won’t be at the table in Yellowknife this Wednesday, choosing instead to send Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman to the annual Western Premiers Conference.

Notley made the announcement on Monday, stating in a tweet that the impending deadline placed by Kinder Morgan takes top priority.

“With 10 days remaining before Kinder Morgan’s deadline, my only priority is to make sure the pipeline gets built,” she wrote.

“So, I won’t be going to the Western Premiers’ Conference this week. Deputy Premier [Sarah Hoffman] will be attending the conference on my behalf.”

In a follow-up tweet, Notley stated that she had no interest in discussing anything other than the pipeline with her fellow premiers.

“It would be surreal and exceptionally tone deaf for anyone to think we could politely discuss pharmacare and cannabis when one of the players is hard at work trying to choke the economic lifeblood of the province and the country,” Notley said in a Monday tweet.

“One of the players” that Notley refers to is more than likely BC Premier John Horgan, who has been actively working to stop the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project since January of this year.

Notley’s government has been putting pressure on BC for the past few months, instituting a boycott on BC wines, raising pro-pipeline billboards in BC, and, most recently, passing legislation that would cut off BC’s supply of Alberta oil.

Kinder Morgan will make its decision on Thursday, May 31 to either go forward with the project or pull out completely.

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