The federal government signed a memorandum of understanding with Alberta yesterday, pledging support to build a new pipeline and make changes to environmental regulations. Prime Minister Mark Carney celebrated a "big day" for Alberta and Canada, but opposition to the deal was vast, including from environmental groups, B.C's Premier, Coastal First Nations, and even within the Liberal Caucus. After the deal was signed, Stephen Guilbeault resigned from Carney's Cabinet.
So what did the Liberals get out of this? We asked one of them. MP Corey Hogan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, joins us to talk about why he sees the MoU as a win for the environment, what he makes of the backlash, and what the path forward is for a pipeline that doesn't have buy-in from B.C. and affected Indigenous communities.
We also try to get to the bottom of a simple question: does Canada need another pipeline? We speak to Andrew Leach, professor of economics and law at the University of Alberta, Dale Beugin, executive vice president at the Canadian Climate Institute, and Janetta McKenzie, ddirector of oil and gas at the Pembina Institute. Hosted by Althia Raj.
This episode of "It's Political" was produced by Althia Raj and Kevin Sexton, and mixed by Matt Hearn. Our theme music is by Isaac Joel.
Some of the audio clips this week were sourced from CPAC and CBC
