Whichever way the wind blows.
That’s how many pipelines are pre-approved in Saskatchewan, effective immediately.
Premier Scott Moe made as much perfectly clear on Twitter (“X”) on Wednesday, minutes after US president Donald Trump kicked the can on imposing tariffs by at least another 30 days.
“Effective Immediately: All pipeline permits going east, west, or south received in Saskatchewan will be considered pre-approved,” he wrote.
“We encourage all provinces and the federal government to do the same.”
And he posted it directly to the social media accounts of both Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to boot.
It comes as Canada’s federal and provincial leaders scramble to reduce interprovincial trade barriers as a response to Trump’s tariff threats and moves to coerce Canada into becoming the ‘51st State’.
Moe, along with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, have argued that pipelines to Canada’s east and west coast — and even the Arctic — could have pre-empted Trump’s tariff takeover and made the country more resilient to the prospect of an economic assault.
Even Trump himself on Monday called for the resurrection of the Keystone XL pipeline, a portion of which would — and did — cross Saskatchewan borders before it was revoked and ripped out of the ground.
But Moe on Tuesday said he supports resurrecting Keystone XL, as long as Trump’s tariffs are called off.
“The path to continental energy dominance is to increase non-tariff North American trade. This includes the construction of new pipelines like Keystone XL,” Moe said in Twitter (“X”) post.
Moe is in Washington for the second time this month lobbying against 25% tariffs — 10% on energy — that Trump said on Wednesday said are still going to come into affect on April 2, along with additional tariffs on steel and aluminum March 12.
But on Tuesday, the successor company to Trans Canada said it was no longer interested in building the line due to the uncertainty generated by the regulatory process in both countries.
Keystone XL would have shipped almost 1 million barrels per day of Alberta oil 1,900 kilometres from Hardisty to the crude storage hub in Cushing, Okla and then on to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
It was first proposed during the Obama administration, which rejected it due to environmental concerns and resurrected in Trumps first term before Joe Biden rejected it a second time via executive order on his first day in office in 2016.
