ndp-on-tmx-pipeline:-we-didn’t-want-it-they-built-it.-so-let’s-use-its-full-potential
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NDP on TMX pipeline: We didn’t want it. They built it. So let’s use its full potential

ByVaughn Palmer

Article content Eby and Sharma exaggerate the degree to which the TMX is “underused … with capacity to spare” after one year of operation. Article content The Canadian Energy Regulator reports that the line has operated at about 80 per cent of its 890,000 barrel-per-day capacity since coming online in May 2024. Moreover, the performance improved in the first quarter of this year. Article content “The pipeline ran at about 85 per cent capacity during the three-month period ending in March,” Chris Varcoe reported in the Calgary Herald this week. The Globe and Mail’s Emma Garney further reported that the line “hit a high of 90 per cent” in March. Article content The demand is such that Trans Mountain has already begun test work to boost capacity by up to 10 per cent by the end of 2026. A longer-term project would add pumping stations to boost it to 1.14 million barrels a day, later in the decade. Article content So much for the B.C. NDP notion that the $34 billion pipeline is languishing through insufficient use. Article content Article content But rather than consult the country’s energy regulator or the national newspapers, perhaps Eby and Sharma were taking their lead from Steven Guilbeault. Article content Guilbeault served as environment minister in the Justin Trudeau Liberal government, where he flourished as a fan of carbon taxation and an opponent of fossil fuel expansion. Article content Carney reassigned him to the Canadian Heritage Department at about the same time as the PM reduced the carbon tax to zero and began talking up the need to expand resource production. Article content It didn’t stop the new heritage minister from wandering outside his lane last month to announce that Canada has no need of more pipelines because TMX was operating at “40 per cent capacity” and the world was approaching “peak oil production.” Article content In the first instance, Guilbeault clearly didn’t know what he was talking about and in the second, there’s much room to debate about when peak oil will be reached. Article content Article content Still, there is a capacity issue regarding the TMX terminal in Burnaby, though not one that involves the pipeline. Article content The terminal is already busy with tankers, having loaded some 741 in the first quarter of the year at a rate that fell just short of one a day in March. But tankers are unable to load fully because of the risk of grounding in Burrard Inlet. Article content The New Democrats have recognized the limitation and come out in support of a federal proposal to dredge Burrard Inlet to a depth that full tankers can traverse. Article content Leading the call is Energy Minister Adrian Dix. As NDP leader, Dix’s snap decision to oppose TMX in the midst of the 2013 election campaign contributed to his loss to Christy Clark. Article content Now that the line is running, Dix supports maximizing its use. “We built it. We paid for it. We should use it,” he says, taking a realistic view of a project that cost him much. Article content Article content Article content

bc.-could-face-huge-challenges-if-alberta-declares-independence
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B.C. could face huge challenges if Alberta declares independence

ByAlec Lazenby

File photo: B.C. Premier David Eby, left, speaks to reporters with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith during meetings with Canada’s other premiers at the Council of the Federation meetings in Halifax on July 16, 2024. Photo by Darren Calabrese /The Canadian Press Article content A vote for independence in Alberta would divide Canada at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening the country’s sovereignty and could pose headaches for B.C. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Vancouver Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Sign In or Create an Account or Article content Article content The trading relationship between B.C. and Alberta is estimated at well over $30 billion annually and “Wild Rose Country” is B.C.’s most important economic partner within Canada. Article content Ports in B.C. rely on railways, pipelines and highways that cross Alberta to move goods to and from the rest of the country, and there could be enormous challenges if these routes are disrupted. Article content Article content Premier David Eby has been reluctant to weigh in so far on the possibility of a sovereign Alberta outside of comments calling for national unity in the face of Trump’s 51st state threats. Article content By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Article content However, he’s not been shy about calling out his displeasure with outside actors becoming involved. Article content “It is a tired trope. It is a waste of time, and it is an attack on the unity that we have right now as a country standing up to the Trump administration, for political, partisan gains,” Eby said in April in response to former Reform Party leader Preston Manning’s column in the Globe and Mail suggesting a victory for Mark Carney’s Liberals in the federal election could lead to Western secession. Article content Conservative Leader John Rustad has been more supportive of Alberta’s grievances, saying Carney needs to “step up to the plate” after his victory. Article content The fires of separatism leading up to the April 28 federal election have been exacerbated in the weeks since by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s move to lower the number of signatures needed to trigger a referendum, from 600,000 to 177,000. Article content Article content A new Alberta Republican party has also been organizing to get those signatures in time for a 2026 referendum. Article content Article content Those developments could cause tension this week as the premiers of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are meeting in Yellowknife for their annual conference. Article content As that meeting began on Wednesday, Eby lamented separatism, without using the word “Alberta,” saying it’s hard to “imagine a worse time to be tacitly or overtly supporting voices” that want to break Canada apart. Article content Stewart Prest, a University of B.C. political scientist, said the challenge for Eby is to balance his belief in Confederation with an understanding of Alberta’s, and to a lesser extent Saskatchewan’s, concerns they aren’t receiving their fair share. Article content “If I were the premier, I would be finding ways to say that Alberta is heard and seen as part of Confederation, but also that this federation is stronger for Alberta’s presence than if Alberta is separated,” said Prest.

plan-for-3-towers-next-to-commercial-broadway-station-finally-heads-to-public-hearing
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Plan for 3 towers next to Commercial-Broadway station finally heads to public hearing

BySimon Little

After nearly a decade of proposals, pushback and debate, a plan to build a set of towers next to one of Metro Vancouver’s busiest transit hubs is getting a public hearing. About 100 people have signed up to speak for and against the proposed redevelopment of a Safeway lot next to the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station. The plan before council envisions three towers, with heights of 44, 38 and 37 storeys, comprising 1,044 rental homes. 2:14 Drastic changes made to Broadway-Commercial Safety redevelopment plan Ten per cent of those units would be secured at city-wide average market rates, while the remainder would lease for going market rates. Story continues below advertisement The proposal has generated strong feelings on both sides, with supporters arguing more housing is critically needed, particularly near transit, and opponents arguing the units won’t be affordable. “Vancouver has a crushing shortage of housing. For decades, we have not been building enough housing, and this neighbourhood, Grandview Woodlands, is a great example of this, we basically haven’t built much new housing there since the 1970s, and as a result the population there is actually declining … despite the fact this SkyTrain station we are talking about is one fo the busiest transit hubs in the country,” Peter Waldkirch, director of Abundant Housing, told CKNW’s The Jill Bennett Show. “Burnaby just proposed an 80-storey tower … it’s actually quite perverse, it’s backwards that we are building bigger and taller buildings than this in the suburbs than we are in the heart of the city.” Get daily National news Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Opponents like Craig Ollenberger, chair of the Grandview Woodland Area Council, say the proposed secured market rental requirement is far too low. A rendering of the trio of proposed towers for Commercial and Broadway in Vancouver. City of Vancouver 2:05 Public hearings on controversial East Vancouver development postponed again Speaking on CKNW’s The Jas Johal Show, he said the city should look to replicate what it did in the Broadway Plan, which is 20 per cent of units at 20 per cent below market rates. Story continues below advertisement “It is bringing nothing but 1,000 luxury rental units to our community, suites that nobody will be able to afford. And for that the city is only asking for 10 per cent of the units to be at market rent,” he said. “This community, the majority of people can’t afford market rent.” The proposed redevelopment would also include a 37-space child care facility, a ground-level public plaza and an upper-level courtyard. Trending Now The development has been contentious ever since it was first put forward in 2016, as part of the broader Grandview-Woodland Community Plan approved by the council led by then-mayor and now federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson. Neighbourhood groups had rejected a previous version of the community plan, arguing it would radically change the neighbourhood’s character, and the pushback led to a municipal citizens’ assembly whose feedback was eventually integrated into the revised 2016 plan, which included a maximum tower height of 24 storeys. A proposal for the Safeway site envisioned two towers, one of them hitting that threshold. 2:04 Grandview Woodland development tour A subsequent version of the proposal, with the tallest tower reaching 30 storeys and composed mostly of condos, nearly made it to a public hearing in 2022, but was sidelined by the 2022 municipal election. Story continues below advertisement “The economics have changed. Rents were lower a few years ago … interest rates were lower … community expectations were different. I think when this project started getting negotiated, you could argue against the need for more housing more successfully,” said Tom Davidoff, an associate professor of economics at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. Davidoff said the pressure to get new units built and to comply with the provincial and federal governments’ transit-oriented density requirements will likely weigh in the project’s favour. The site would sit virtually on top of the intersection of two SkyTrain lines and the 99-B Line bus route. It’s TransLink’s third-busiest transit hub, and saw more than 6.2 million boardings in 2023. “If you can’t have density at the intersection of streets named Commercial and Broadway, where there is a major transit intersection, I don’t know where you want people to go,” Davidoff said. With scores of people signed up to speak, Wednesday’s hearing could go late into the evening, — with files from Alissa Thibault &copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.