CALGARY -- Municipal leaders who don't recognize that the proposed Energy East pipeline would be beneficial to all Canadians are being "short-sighted," Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Friday as an east-versus-west energy brawl percolated.
Notley, in Toronto meeting with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, was responding to Montreal-area mayors who oppose TransCanada Corp.'s $15.7 billion project and say the environmental risks far outweigh any economic benefits for that region.
"This pipeline is part of building a strong Canada, it's part of building a strong economy," Notley said. "A pipeline is the safest way, the most efficient way (to ship oil) … that is the safe solution."
Wynne, meantime, praised her Alberta counterpart for her NDP government's climate change initiatives, saying those efforts are making "the national conversation about climate targets and pipelines easier."
In Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau found himself in the midst of a battle between east and west and urged everyone to work together.
"I'm very much in the camp of both premiers Wynne and Notley, who demonstrated that Canada can and should work together on eco-ssues for all of us. That's the focus that I've always taken -- collaborating, respectful, working together to solve the challenges that are facing all Canadians."
The tone on social media was decidedly different.
"I trust Montreal-area mayors will politely return their share of $10B in equalization supported by West," Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall tweeted.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, meantime, tweeted the respective populations of metropolitan Montreal versus Saskatchewan: four million compared to 1.13 million.
The proposed pipeline would take Alberta crude as far east as an Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, N.B., and would be capable of carrying up to 1.1 million barrels a day from the West to the East.
Wynne says that many of Ontario's conditions for supporting the pipeline -- including working with communities and aboriginal groups and making sure climate change is taken into account -- are "starting to be addressed."
