A Calgary-based indigenous group is still willing to take the troubled Trans Mountain pipeline off taxpayers’ hands despite ballooning construction costs to finish the project..Project Reconciliation says it has entered into early stage negotiations to acquire Trans Mountain Corporation from the federal government even though the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) is overdue and over budget..Earlier this month the feds announced that the TMX project to the West Coast is expected to cost a total of $30.9 billion — up from original estimates of $12.6 billion — by the time it comes into service in 2024..Once complete the expanded line will carry almost 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) from the Edmonton area to tidewater at the Port of Vancouver in Burnaby, BC and facilitate an outlet for much-need oil exports to Asia..This, despite a long and troubled backstory. .In 2019, the federal government bought the troubled line from US-based Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion after it was essentially dead. due, ironically, to the federal government’s own onerous regulatory requirements and rising capital costs..Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then-Finance Minister Bill Morneau decided the line was a vital national interest even after they rejected the Northern Gateway to Kitimat and implemented Bill C-69, the so-called ‘no tankers act’ banning oil tankers off the northern coast..Now, almost five years and a Supreme Court of Canada challenge later, the TMX project is about 80% complete..The end goal for the feds was never to own and operate the line, however. Rather, it planned to sell it to private investors all along — despite a report from the Parliamentary Budget Office last June that said it would likely have to take a $14 billion hit on the value of the assets. Since that time construction costs have risen another 44%..Project Reconciliation aims to acquire the government’s stake on behalf of the 129 native groups along the pipeline route in Alberta and BC. Managing Director Stephen Mason told the Canadian Press that the group is still interested in buying it and the federal government has acknowledged their willingness to do so..Although it hasn’t disclosed how much it’s willing to pay, it’s not entirely clear if it’s a viable business proposition given the exorbitant cost overruns. Shipping tolls are tightly regulated and under law contacted companies are only obliged to cover 20% of the capital costs in the form of higher shipping rates..“We are not going away, just because it's $30.9 billion,” Mason told CP. “It doesn't matter (any potential buyer) will only pay what the commercial value is and what the tolls will support," he added..On its website, Project Reconciliation says addressing native poverty by providing economic opportunity, investment and jobs is the only way to achieve true reconciliation with Canada’s indigenous communities and begin the healing process after two centuries of colonialism. .“There is no indigenous sovereignty without economic sovereignty,” it says on its web site.
