Pipeline

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