Notley urges Canadian government to ‘step up’

Notley is half way through a tour across Canada, aimed at promoting Alberta’s pipeline interests, most notably Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline project.

The project is currently in court and facing permit delays from Burnaby in British Columbia's Lower Mainland.

On 21 November in Ottowa, Notley addressed the Economic Club of Canada. During her speech, she said that ignoring climate change will only hinder pipeline approvals.

She explained: "We cannot put a generation of people out of work and then look surprised or act surprised when people reject the purpose for that, reject climate change, reject the efforts to protect the environment.”

As the global demand for oil rises, Notley noted that “the world can either buy its oil from Alberta – where we are taking climate change seriously – or it can buy it from places with runaway emissions like Venezuela and Russia.”

She concluded: "Now, more than ever, Canadians need our national government to articulate and defend the national interest, because Trans Mountain is a project that we all need, and now we need to get it done.”