Premier John Horgan is making the right move by asking the courts to give advice on the pipeline dispute.
He could have saved himself and the rest of the country a lot of grief if he had gone this route before poking Alberta with the equivalent of a sharp stick.
Although it feels as if the trade war has been going on for months, it was only on Jan. 30 that Horgan’s government shocked Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by proposing to restrict shipments of bitumen through the province until a scientific panel could review spill response.
The normally equable Notley could not afford to let that threat to her province’s signature industry go unchallenged.
The next thing we knew, Alberta had banned B.C. wine, and bemused Canadians saw the almost unimaginable sight of a prime minister named Trudeau uniting with an Alberta premier to insist that the Wildrose province could pump oil anywhere it wants in the “national interest.”
On Thursday, Horgan said the government would file a constitutional reference case with the courts, asking if it has the power to restrict increased bitumen shipments through the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline in order to protect its environment.
It doesn’t matter whether the court case amounts to B.C. backing down. What matters is that everyone could finally get some authoritative help on a difficult issue. The federal government clearly has the power to approve pipelines, but it is far from clear how much power provinces have to protect their environments.
Horgan should have sought that advice before he started this bun fight.
