Things could soon get a lot uglier between British Columbia and Alberta.
On Wednesday, Alberta legislature passed a bill that would allow the province to shut off the oil supply to B.C. at any time.
Bill 12 passes third and final reading in the Alberta legislature (Just corrected my earlier tweet. It turns out one MLA voted against Bill 12. Sorry about that) #ableg #bcpoli
— MichelleBellefontaine (@MBellefontaine) May 16, 2018
Bill 12, known as the “Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act,” was initially introduced on April 16 by Alberta’s Ministry of Energy.
Roadblocks put in place by the British Columbia government have resulted in pipeline delays that have caused the Canadian economy to lose out on millions of dollars of revenue every day,” reads an overview of the bill on the Government of Alberta website.
“Revenue that could have been used to build roads, schools and hospitals and keep thousands of Canadians working.”
As such, the bill was “introduced to defend Alberta’s energy industry and maximize the value of our natural energy resources.”
Now that the bill has passed, it gives the provincial government authority to require companies obtain a license before exporting energy products from Alberta.
That includes the export of natural gas, crude oil or refined fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, via pipeline, rail or truck.
These export licenses will be available for every company, but only if the province’s minister of energy determines a couple of things.
The first is that adequate pipeline capacity is available to maximize the return on resources and that a supply is maintained to Alberta’s needs, both now and into the future.
The punishment for not complying with the act or its regulations is nothing to scoff at, as companies would face up to a $10 million per day fine, while individuals face up to $1 million per day in fines.
