News
Ignatieff Says Liberals Will Keep B.C. Tanker Ban After Enbridge Lobbying
Apr 1, 2011, Bloomberg (Read article on originating site site)
Canada Liberal opposition leader Michael Ignatieff said his party would maintain a ban on oil shipments off the British Columbia coast, a potential obstacle to Enbridge Inc. (ENB)’s proposed C$5.5 billion ($5.7 billion) Northern Gateway pipeline.
Ignatieff said he has met with executives of Calgary-based Enbridge, which wants to link the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast. Chief Executive Officer Patrick Daniel told the Globe and Mail newspaper in an interview published yesterday he expected the Liberals to end the ban.
“Enbridge hasn’t made its case here,” Ignatieff told reporters today at a campaign stop ahead of a May 2 election in London, Ontario. “We believe in maintaining that tanker ban,” he said, citing environmental concerns.
Aboriginal groups in Canada’s westernmost province also oppose the pipeline, and pressed Bank of Montreal executives to stop financing the project at the bank’s annual meeting in Vancouver last month. Ignatieff told Bloomberg News in a March 29 interview he wants clearer environmental regulations so the oil sands industry can grow.
Alberta is developing deposits in the oil sands that hold an estimated 170 billion barrels of recoverable oil, second only to Saudi Arabia’s 265 billion barrels, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Those deposits have spurred other investments, such as TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline to deliver crude oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Western Canada
Recent polls suggest the May 2 election may return Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to power, though it isn’t clear that he would be able to win a majority of seats in the House of Commons. Harper’s Conservatives draw much of their support from rural areas, particularly in western Canada, including Alberta, Harper’s home province.
Ignatieff today also reiterated a pledge to spend C$1 billion annually to support people who take time off work to care for ill or elderly relatives.
To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at [email protected].
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at [email protected]; David Scanlan at [email protected].