Another day, another delay and another $3.1 billion short.That’s how to best sum up the ongoing saga of the beleaguered Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to the West Coast as it limps — not sprints — to the finish.The company on Tuesday confirmed what many had suspected for weeks in a filing with the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) on Monday: that the taxpayer funded line won’t be completed until May 1 due to ongoing construction difficulties on the final section of the line between Hope and Chilliwack.More troubling, however, was news that it will cost another $3.1 billion to do it and raising the final price tag to an even $34 billion. The irony is that it was originally expected to cost $5.4 billion when it was acquired by the Liberal government in 2018..In the filing the company blamed the pandemic, years of labour shortages and technical challenges have caused the project’s costs to soar and required increasing government funds.“In many cases, the project was delayed by factors outside Trans Mountain’s control,” it said.“These costs include the cost of repairs to road and infrastructure, stand by time, repairs required for Line 1, and specific indigenous relations costs incurred during this time.”The revised estimates were included in information requests related to the overall financial health of the company, insurance coverages, revised work schedules and most important — revised toll schedules which it applied to keep confidential for competitive reasons.The distinction is important because Canadian oil producers are disputing who should be responsible for the fixed base costs of about $9.7 billion and the nearly $23 billion over and above the agreed overruns.That in turn will in turn determine the economic viability of shipping oil under various economic circumstances from Alberta to the US or even Asia — and what it would be worth to private investors to take it off taxpayers’ hands..Contracted shippers had applied late last year for the CER to hold the company responsible for any further overruns.GasWizard boss Dan McTeague, a former Liberal cabinet minister under Jean Chrétien and frequent critic of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said it should be the Liberal Party along with the BC government that should be held to account.“Jeepers,” he wrote on Twitter (“X”). “The BC NDP govt & every climate obstructionist who caused this should pay for this unnecessary costs to all Cdns. If the Trudeau govt refused to stand up for the integrity of its own permitting process that Kinder Morgan followed, then the Liberal Party should also pay.”Despite his avowed support for buying it in the first place, Trudeau on an Edmonton talk radio show last week said doing so hasn’t won him many friends among his environmentalist base — or in Alberta, either..“First of all, buying the trans mountain pipeline wasn't about hoping to turn a profit for the government. It was about making sure that Alberta crude was not landlocked was not prisoner to one single customer in the United States,” he said. “I took a lot of grief across the country for buying the pipeline. But I knew that if we want to be able to pay for the innovation, the transformation of our economy, to be greener, to be cleaner, we need to get the best possible price for our oil products now and that means getting out across the Pacific. That's why we bought the pipeline, because it was good for Alberta and it's good for the country.”When complete, the project will nearly triple capacity of the line to 880,000 barrels per day (bpd) and add an additional half million bpd of export capacity.“If I was worried about credit, I never would have bought the trans mountain pipeline,” he continued. “I would have listened to my Eastern urban environmentalist voters. I took a huge hit in the teeth for buying the Trans Mountain pipeline, because it was the right thing to do for the country. Not because, ooh, maybe I can win two or three seats in Alberta.”
Another day, another delay and another $3.1 billion short.That’s how to best sum up the ongoing saga of the beleaguered Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to the West Coast as it limps — not sprints — to the finish.The company on Tuesday confirmed what many had suspected for weeks in a filing with the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) on Monday: that the taxpayer funded line won’t be completed until May 1 due to ongoing construction difficulties on the final section of the line between Hope and Chilliwack.More troubling, however, was news that it will cost another $3.1 billion to do it and raising the final price tag to an even $34 billion. The irony is that it was originally expected to cost $5.4 billion when it was acquired by the Liberal government in 2018..In the filing the company blamed the pandemic, years of labour shortages and technical challenges have caused the project’s costs to soar and required increasing government funds.“In many cases, the project was delayed by factors outside Trans Mountain’s control,” it said.“These costs include the cost of repairs to road and infrastructure, stand by time, repairs required for Line 1, and specific indigenous relations costs incurred during this time.”The revised estimates were included in information requests related to the overall financial health of the company, insurance coverages, revised work schedules and most important — revised toll schedules which it applied to keep confidential for competitive reasons.The distinction is important because Canadian oil producers are disputing who should be responsible for the fixed base costs of about $9.7 billion and the nearly $23 billion over and above the agreed overruns.That in turn will in turn determine the economic viability of shipping oil under various economic circumstances from Alberta to the US or even Asia — and what it would be worth to private investors to take it off taxpayers’ hands..Contracted shippers had applied late last year for the CER to hold the company responsible for any further overruns.GasWizard boss Dan McTeague, a former Liberal cabinet minister under Jean Chrétien and frequent critic of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said it should be the Liberal Party along with the BC government that should be held to account.“Jeepers,” he wrote on Twitter (“X”). “The BC NDP govt & every climate obstructionist who caused this should pay for this unnecessary costs to all Cdns. If the Trudeau govt refused to stand up for the integrity of its own permitting process that Kinder Morgan followed, then the Liberal Party should also pay.”Despite his avowed support for buying it in the first place, Trudeau on an Edmonton talk radio show last week said doing so hasn’t won him many friends among his environmentalist base — or in Alberta, either..“First of all, buying the trans mountain pipeline wasn't about hoping to turn a profit for the government. It was about making sure that Alberta crude was not landlocked was not prisoner to one single customer in the United States,” he said. “I took a lot of grief across the country for buying the pipeline. But I knew that if we want to be able to pay for the innovation, the transformation of our economy, to be greener, to be cleaner, we need to get the best possible price for our oil products now and that means getting out across the Pacific. That's why we bought the pipeline, because it was good for Alberta and it's good for the country.”When complete, the project will nearly triple capacity of the line to 880,000 barrels per day (bpd) and add an additional half million bpd of export capacity.“If I was worried about credit, I never would have bought the trans mountain pipeline,” he continued. “I would have listened to my Eastern urban environmentalist voters. I took a huge hit in the teeth for buying the Trans Mountain pipeline, because it was the right thing to do for the country. Not because, ooh, maybe I can win two or three seats in Alberta.”
