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Trans Mountain: what you need to know

Just after yesterday morning’s federal cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Bill Morneau made it official: the Government of Canada will purchase the Trans Mountain Pipeline from Kinder Morgan, complete its expansion, and seek to sell it back to private interests. Many points of interest to cover here:

• The purchase price of $4.5 billion includes the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline, the heavy crude terminal in Burnaby, B.C. where tankers load up on its output, and the personnel to keep it all going. The deal is scheduled to close in August.
• That $4.5 billion doesn’t include the construction cost of the expansion, which was estimated last year at $7.4 billion, of which Kinder Morgan had already spent about $1 billion. Morneau did not say how much the government actually expects to spend.
• If all goes according to plan (hardly a given with this project), the expanded pipeline would be operational in 2021.
• Why do Trudeau and co. think they can complete the expansion when Kinder Morgan couldn’t? This deal makes Trans Mountain an official Crown project instead of merely a private undertaking; that’s likely to stymie some of the legal challenges—since the Crown generally trumps the provinces and the First Nations when push comes to shove.
• Kinder Morgan isn’t out of the picture entirely. It will resume construction immediately and continue until the purchase closes in August. Export Development Canada will backstop any loans it needs to get things rolling again.
• Who could buy Trans Mountain once the expansion is finished? The list of Canadian companies big enough to make such a deal is very short: Enbridge and TransCanada are the most logical domestic buyers, but neither appears enthusiastic at the prospect. Potential foreign buyers are more numerous but it’s all just shots in the dark at this point.
• A buyer could emerge, however, long before construction is actually complete. “We’ve had expressions of interest from multiple investors over the course of this last month,” Morneau said in yesterday’s press conference.

Go in depth:

• Why Trudeau decided to buy Kinder Morgan—and hopes to sell it again soon
• Who will build the Trans Mountain pipeline—and at what cost?
• Who could possibly buy the Trans Mountain pipeline — and how soon?

Can protestors still stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline?