WASHINGTON —
The latest pipeline dispute between Canada and the United States is back on the agenda in Ottawa.
Enbridge vice-president Vern Yu is scheduled to appear Tuesday before a special House of Commons committee exploring Canada-U.S. ties.
Enbridge owns and operates Line 5, a vital cross-border energy link that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has vowed to shut down.
Whitmer is convinced the dual pipeline, which runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac that connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, poses too severe a threat to the health of the Great Lakes.
Yu, head of the Calgary company’s liquid-pipeline division, has called Whitmer’s concerns baseless and says Line 5 remains safe.
Michigan has refused to concede that the state’s own experts have concluded there are no clear alternatives to the pipeline, he wrote to the governor in a letter earlier this year.
The state “fails to acknowledge that Line 5 enables the safe transport of fuel essential to heat homes and provides energy to Michigan, neighbouring U.S. states and Canada’s two largest provinces,” Yu wrote.
“It also fails to account for the significant adverse social and economic impacts that will result from closure.”
Line 5 has emerged as the newest flashpoint in Canada-U.S. relations just two months after President Joe Biden cancelled the Keystone XL expansion project.
Also testifying today are Maryscott Greenwood of the Canadian American Business Council and Mark Agnew and Aaron Henry of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Prepared remarks by Agnew and Henry indicate the chamber is taking a hard line as part of a concerted “Team Canada” approach to opposing Michigan’s efforts to shut down the line.
“Revoking the easement and shutting down Line 5 will create significant repercussions for Canada and the U.S. economies,” Henry, the chamber’s senior director of natural resources, says in his opening statement.
Cutting off the pipeline, which moves some 540,000 barrels of fossil fuels a day through Michigan, would cost $65 billion in direct revenue and $28 billion of indirect revenue in annual trade.
It delivers more than half the state’s propane demand, supports 29,000 jobs in Sarnia, Ont., alone, and would require 800 rail cars or 2,000 trucks a day to replace its capacity, the statement adds.
“There is no alternative to Line 5, simply because the capacity to absorb the products moved through Line 5 does not exist.”
Andrew Leach, an economist and business professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in the energy sector, said the Line 5 dispute is shaping up as a major sticking point between Canada and the United States.
Keystone XL, the TC Energy expansion project that Biden shut down on his first day in the White House, proved a bilateral irritant throughout President Barack Obama’s two terms as president.
Biden’s decision prompted a fierce reaction from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who has promised to take “every legal recourse” in hopes of recouping the province’s multibillion-dollar investment.
Whitmer, meanwhile, is a close ally of Biden who was on his original list of potential running mates before he made her a vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee.
“The combination of Gov. Whitmer’s connection to the Biden administration, the probably ill-advised opening gambits from Alberta and to some degree Canada, digging their heels in as they did, probably made it more likely that this becomes the next flashpoint,” Leach said.
The difference between Keystone XL and Line 5, he added, is that the latter is a pre-existing pipeline that has been demonstrating its importance to both countries for nearly 60 years.
“You don’t need to do hypotheticals about this,” Leach said. “It’s very clear.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2021
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
