B.C. election results could cause problems for Alberta
Posted May 10, 2017 2:49 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The dust still hasn’t settled in British Columbia, but, the Green party and its three seats hold the balance of power, which isn’t the best news for Alberta.
If the Green party teams up with the NDP, they can try and stop proposed pipeline expansion.
Federal projects which have approval like Kinder Morgan probably aren’t at risk but Trevor Tombe, a U of C Economist, says the B.C. government can make things difficult and that should be concerning.
“A lack of pipeline access means that we produce less oil here and each barrel we produce is worth less, so this is an issue that could cost Alberta’s economy billions of dollars,” Tombe said. “I think a lot of the gains that we saw for the NDP in the Burnaby area in particular, was directly related to opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.”
Executive Fellow with the School of Public Policy, Gaetan Caron, says uncertainty could scare off investors.
“All things being equal, it could make some projects not proceed based on the risk profile, but the investor will have to compare that to investing elsewhere,” Caron said.
Some seats are still being disputed, but while Caron doesn’t think a recount will effect who holds the power, Tombe suggests it’s close enough that we need to wait and see.
