WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th June, 2019) The Canadian government has approved the resumption of work to complete the Trans Mountain Pipeline, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at a press conference in Ottawa.
"Today, I am announcing that our government has approved the Trans Mountain expansion project... [which puts] Canada in a stronger strategic position to create more good middle class jobs," Trudeau said on Tuesday.
Canada will be less dependent on the United States and will have access to the growing Asian market as a result of the project, Trudeau added. The decision will boost the country's energy workers who had suffered "far too long" while the project languished, the Canadian prime minister said.
The pipeline was bought by the Canadian government from the Texas--based Kinder Morgan infrastructure company as a way out of regulatory and political uncertainty that led the company to abandon the project.
Trudeau said the company plans to have shovels in the ground this construction season.
If completed, the expansion would nearly triple the capacity of the pipeline that runs from Edmonton in the western oil-rich province of Alberta to Burnaby on British Columbia's Pacific coast but it has previously been opposed by environmental and First Nation groups.
