New Brunswick pushes cross-country pipeline as ‘game changer’ – by Jane Taber, Shawn McCarthy and Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – January 28, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

HALIFAX, OTTAWA and CALGARY — New Brunswick Premier David Alward is headed to Alberta to inject some political momentum into a proposed $5-billion, cross-Canada oil pipeline that he describes as a nation-building project.

The Progressive Conservative Premier will make his first visit to Alberta early next month, where he will meet with his counterpart, Alison Redford, travel to Fort McMurray to tour the oil sands, and visit industry executives in Calgary.

In an interview, Mr. Alward expressed enthusiasm for the proposed TransCanada pipeline project that would bring western oil to eastern Canadian refineries, and perhaps allow for crude exports from the deep-water port of Saint John.

“This is something that is potentially a game-changer for New Brunswick, but more importantly than just New Brunswick, for all of Canada,” Mr. Alward said.

Ms. Redford echoed that enthusiasm in an interview, characterizing the west-east pipeline as “critically important.” She added, too, that she believes the project is “quite feasible” and “economically viable” for the industry.

TransCanada Corp. is still pondering the project. It must gauge whether oil companies will commit to ship sufficient volumes to justify the investment. The line – much of it to be converted from an existing gas pipeline – could carry between 500,000 and one million barrels a day of oil.

Mr. Alward’s full-throated endorsement of TransCanada’s plan contrasts sharply with reaction in British Columbia to the Northern Gateway project. B.C. Premier Christy Clark has thrown up barriers to the pipeline, which would carry oil sands bitumen to the port of Kitimat for export by supertanker.

And it comes as TransCanada faces increased risks to its long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline after President Barack Obama used this week’s inaugural address to elevate climate change as a top priority for his administration in its second term. Mr. Obama’s speech was “not encouraging” for supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told Reuters news service in an interview in Davos, Switzerland on Friday.

Much is at stake for both Mr. Alward and Ms. Redford.

For New Brunswick, the project could mean jobs, a much-needed economic boost to the small “have-not” province that is lacking in natural resources.

Under the most ambitious scenario, the pipeline would bring oil from western North America – Canada and the U.S. – to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick. The Irving Oil refinery in Saint John is the largest in the country but relies entirely on imported oil which is far more costly than North American crude.

For the rest of this article, please go to the Globe and Mail website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/new-brunswick-pushes-cross-country-pipeline-as-game-changer/article7901308/?ord=1