Liberal government to buy Trans Mountain pipeline project, seek new investors
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

OTTAWA—The federal Liberal government has agreed to buy the troubled Trans Mountain expansion project from Kinder Morgan to ensure the controversial expansion of an Alberta-to-B.C. crude oil pipeline gets built.The price tag is less than the company’s estimated $7.4-billion projected cost but taxpayers will be on the hook for $4.5 billion according to details released by Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr at a news conference Tuesday. Ottawa will take over the expansion and the existing pipeline and assets in a deal that will see Kinder Morgan immediately begin construction. But Ottawa will immediately seek new buyers in the private sector and has promised to also extend insurance to them for any politically-motivated delays.The deal ensures construction that was suspended April 8 by Kinder Morgan’s jittery investors will now begin immediately under the ownership of a Crown corporation, with plans for the federal government to seek other investors to soon take it over.The political and economic ramifications of buying an oil pipeline are huge, given stiff opposition in B.C. which could threaten Liberal seats there in next year’s election.On his way into a rare early-morning cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was tight-lipped about the risks of his pipeline plan to taxpayers or the environment, saying only that “we’re going to get that pipeline built.”The federal Liberal government does not intend to hold onto the project over the long-term, a source said, and will seek other investors quickly to take it on.Trudeau’s options included buying a partial equity stake as Alberta’s provincial NDP government also offered to do, taking over the project outright to build it then sell it to other investors, or buying it from Kinder Morgan and flipping it quickly to other interested investors to build it.Trudeau and Morneau had already offered to “indemnify” or i ...