Harper Says Cabinet to Decide on Northern Gateway Pipeline

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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During a Q&A session hosted by the Vancouver Board of Trade, Prime Minister Stephen Harper assured that his government’s aim to diversify Canada’s energy markets will not forcefully make the cabinet approve the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline project and it is not an inevitable conclusion.

Prime Minister Harper mentioned during the session on Monday that his cabinet will surely balance economic and environmental interests while making the final decision on whether or not to approve the $6-billion project that will link the Alberta oil sands with Kitimat, B.C., after which oil could be shipped to foreign markets by tanker. Mr. Harper stressed that “we will not approve projects unless they are not only in our economic interests, but also meet the highest standards of environmental protection.” Mr. Harper answered the lone questioner, the president of the Vancouver Board of Trade, Iain Black, before a sold-out audience of 530 people in a downtown hotel.

Through he was speaking about any heavy-oil project in general, Mr. Harper’s comments could be deemed as offering a view of how the federal Tories will deal with Gateway in particular. He mentioned that “we want to make sure that these kinds of projects are not just viable and give us lots of economic prosperity, but we want to make sure they are environmentally safe and every measure is taken to prevent any kind of serious environmental threat or other kind of disaster and, in the rare case that anything might happen, there are adequate responses.”