Morneau pledges support for oil lots via Trans Mountain as protesters sing on the outside

CALGARY – Hundreds of protesters chanting "Build this pipe now" blocked a downtown Calgary street for the second time in five days on Tuesday, on the occasion of the speech by federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

According to James Robson, organizer of the Canada Action Coalition, his group – who criticized the speech of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last Thursday – plans to run every time a federal minister sits, because it is important that Canadians see the "pain" caused by lack of oil prices attributed to insufficient market access to pipeline markets.

In a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Morneau stated that Ottawa had expressed support for the energy workers of Western Canada by purchasing the Trans Mountain Pipeline for 4, $ 5 billion and attempting to have his expansion project built after a court has canceled it. in August.

He acknowledged that "the industry is under threat" and has declared himself sensitive to "extreme anxiety" felt by Albertans, but the addition of the policies unveiled in his report on taxation last week will help boost investment in the country.

He dodged the question of whether the federal government would contribute to an Alberta plan to buy cars to transport oil to the market, noting that he was ready to listen to short-term solutions, while repeating that the expansion of Trans Mountain was the best long-term solution.

Robson said his organization wanted the government to rethink its Bill C-69 to reorganize the National Energy Board and Bill C-48 to ban tankers on the North Shore. from British Columbia, noting that both make pipeline construction more difficult.

Both proposals were pbaded in the House of Commons and are before the Senate.

"There must be people badociated with the prevailing pain," Robson said of the protests.

"This obviously does not resonate in a high-level conversation, so it has to be a base, it must be real and they have to see it."

Morneau told reporters that he did not think the protesters were mistaken.

"They are not mistaken at all, they feel extreme anxiety that we understand perfectly," he said.

"The industry is under threat, we are not getting market prices for our resources and, therefore, people are not doing the kind of investments we want them to do." "