Premier David Eby continued to evade direct questions about whether he would support an oil pipeline from Alberta to B.C.'s North Coast, telling reporters on Wednesday (June 25) in Vancouver that attention should be on "shovel-ready" projects.
"Some of my frustration about this issue is that there is no proponent," he said. "There is actually no project."
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith continues to push for a new pipeline, saying this week that she expects a firm to come forward with a pipeline proposal within weeks if the regulatory hurdles are cleared.
"We've been in active conversation with many pipeline companies," she said on Tuesday. "I feel like we are pretty close to having one, or a consortium, coming forward."
Eby said he would not "speculate" on what will happen in the future, but urged the attention to be turned to projects already underway.
"I strongly encourage the federal government to pay attention to those projects and help us deliver those projects that are ready to go," he said.
Another wrinkle to be addressed for any proposed pipeline from Alberta to B.C.'s North Coast is the federal government's ban on large oil tankers filling up in the area.
This was enacted in the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act in 2019, and prohibits tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of oil from loading, unloading or stopping in ports in any of B.C.'s coastal waterways north of Vancouver Island.
Eby has said repeatedly that the B.C. NDP supports keeping the ban.
"We don't support lifting the tanker ban, the oil tanker ban off the north coast of British Columbia," he said on June 3.
So far, he has not publicly changed this position.
