Commentary
Ottawa needs to finally declare through legislation that the Trans Mountain Expansion Project is to the national advantage of Canada. Doing so would prove to the Canadian public and indigenous communities that the federal government is serious about seeing it completed.
Make no mistake, killing the project would be devastating for many indigenous communities along the corridor.
The matter becomes more pressing given the recent report on the project by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). The PBO determined that the net present value of the pipeline is negative $600 million, leaving it worth about $1.2 billion less than the PBO’s estimate in December 2020. Added costs have also pushed the project’s completion date to the third quarter of 2023….