‘Better late than never’: Kamloops MP weighs in on Trans Mountain meeting

Apr 16, 2018 | 11:23 AM

OTTAWA — It was long overdue, but she’s still not sure what it accomplished.

That’s Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Cathy McLeod’s assessment of Sunday’s meeting in Ottawa involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and B.C. Premier John Horgan on the future of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

“The prime minister should have seen that this was coming to a very critical state a number of months ago,” she told CFJC Today.

She adds we still don’t have a clear picture of how the government plans to move the project forward and she isn’t a fan of the prime minister’s suggestion that the government could buy into the pipeline to ensure it moves forward.

In the meantime, McLeod wants to see the project proceed.

“It’s in the national interest, it has been approved through due process and really having a concrete plan moving forward would give me a great deal more comfort.”

She blames the Liberals for letting “the issue fester,” and hopes Kinder Morgan “will see fit to proceed” with it by the company’s self-imposed May 31 deadline.

The Conservative Party has asked for an emergency debate on the issue in the House of Commons this week.

Though the National Energy Board approved the project in 2016, B.C.’s Green-backed NDP minority government remains opposed out of concern for B.C.’s coastline.