Alberta
New $1 billion pipeline deal spreads Indigenous ownership through Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan
From the Canadian Energy Centre
By Will Gibson
‘We are writing the history of tomorrow today, not living the outcomes of our forefathers’
In a landmark agreement announced July 30, a consortium of up to 72 Indigenous communities in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan will buy a 5.34 per cent stake in TC Energy’s NGTL natural gas network.
The agreement is backed by a $1 billion loan guarantee from the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (AIOC).
TC Energy’s sprawling NGTL network spans 25,000 kilometres and handles about 10 per cent of North America’s natural gas, connecting production in Alberta and British Columbia to domestic and export markets.
Map courtesy TC Energy
The loan guarantee has similarly impressive scope and size, quadrupling the AIOC’s previous largest financial commitment, a $250 million loan guarantee provided to 23 Indigenous communities in September 2022 to help purchase an 11.57 per cent stake in seven Enbridge oil sands pipelines in northern Alberta.
The deal will raise the AIOC’s support of Indigenous equity ownership in resource projects to over $1.68 billion since 2019.
“I’ve participated in three of these transactions, including the Enbridge loan guarantee, and you can see an evolution in the size and complexity of these agreements,” says Justin Bourque, founder and president of Âsokan Generational Developments, a consultancy that specializes in partnerships between Indigenous communities and industry.
“They are building on the good work from previous deals and it’s wonderful to see the AIOC expanding into neighbouring provinces, where these types of agreements will have significant benefits to the participating Nations in B.C. and Saskatchewan as well as Alberta.”
Âsokan Generational Developments president and founder Justin Bourque pictured on his trap line in northern Alberta with the Long Lake oil sands facility in the background. Photo for Canadian Energy Centre
The new agreement also demonstrates growing comfort among Indigenous communities, industry players and lenders as these equity arrangements become more commonplace, says Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa-based think tank.
“There are some formidable challenges with trying to negotiate with multiple communities across different treaty areas and provinces, but this shows the confidence the Alberta government has in backstopping these bespoke deals with communities and companies when the merits of the project deserves it,” says Exner-Pirot, who also serves as a special advisor to the Business Council of Canada.
Heather Exner-Pirot, senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Photo supplied
“It also demonstrates the confidence from the lenders in these equity deals for pipelines. And that confidence is well founded because these existing pipelines are a stable business that generate the revenues to pay back the loan as well as income for the communities to use as well.”
The announcement builds on momentum for Indigenous ownership of Canadian energy projects, including June’s announcement that the Haisla Nation and Pembina Pipeline Corporation will move ahead with the Cedar LNG project.
The floating LNG export facility on Canada’s west coast will be the world’s first with Indigenous majority ownership.
Bourque sees the agreements providing a framework for future partnerships between Indigenous communities, government and industry beyond equity ownership.
“This is an important stepping stone in our evolution and it’s exciting to see it continue through pursuing opportunities in energy development, decarbonization and energy transition projects,” Bourque says.
“We are writing the history of tomorrow today, not living the outcomes of our forefathers.”
Photo courtesy TC Energy
Exner-Pirot also sees a bright future for collaborations between Indigenous communities and energy companies, in part because the federal, Saskatchewan and BC governments now also offer loan guarantee programs.
“These deals take months, if not years, to come together and what this shows is the AIOC, Indigenous communities and energy companies have found a template that works,” she says.
“The NGTL loan guarantee is the biggest but it won’t be the last one.”
Alberta
Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest
From LifeSiteNews
Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.
An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.
On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.
“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.
Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.
“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”
After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.
Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.
He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.
In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”
However, defence lawyer Sarah Miller pointed out that that Pawlowski’s sermon was protected under freedom of speech, an argument that Krinke quickly dismissed.
“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.
Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.
Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.
The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.
Clean Energy Fuels CEO Andrew Littlefair, Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose, and Mullen Group chairman Murray Mullen attend the opening of a new Clean Energy/Tourmaline compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
From the Canadian Energy Centre
New compressed natural gas fueling stations in Grande Prairie and Calgary join new stop in Edmonton
Heavy-duty truckers hauling everything from restaurant supplies to specialized oilfield services along one of Western Canada’s busiest corridors now have more access to a fuel that can help reduce emissions and save costs.
Two new fuelling stations serving compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than diesel in Grande Prairie and Calgary, along with a stop that opened in Edmonton last year, create the first phase of what proponents call a “natural gas highway”.
“Compressed natural gas is viable, it’s competitive and it’s good for the environment,” said Murray Mullen, chair of Mullen Group, which operates more than 4,300 trucks and thousands of pieces of equipment supporting Western Canada’s energy industry.
Right now, the company is running 19 CNG units and plans to deploy another 15 as they become available.
“They’re running the highways right now and they’re performing exceptionally well,” Mullen said on Oct. 22 during the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the new station on the northern edge of Calgary along Highway 2.
“Our people love them, our customers love them and I think it’s going to be the way for the future to be honest,” he said.
Heavy-duty trucks at Tourmaline and Clean Energy’s new Calgary compressed natural gas fuelling station. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
According to Natural Resources Canada, natural gas burns more cleanly than gasoline or diesel fuel, producing fewer toxic pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
The two new CNG stops are part of a $70 million partnership announced last year between major Canadian natural gas producer Tourmaline and California-based Clean Energy Fuels.
Their deal would see up to 20 new CNG stations built in Western Canada over the next five years, daily filling up to 3,000 natural gas-fueled trucks.
One of North America’s biggest trucking suppliers to businesses including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Subway and Popeye’s says the new stations will help as it expands its fleet of CNG-powered vehicles across Canada.
Amy Senter, global vice-president of sustainability with Illinois-based Martin Brower, said in a statement that using more CNG is critical to the company achieving its emissions reduction targets.
For Tourmaline, delivering CNG to heavy-duty truckers builds on its multi-year program to displace diesel in its operations, primarily by switching drilling equipment to run on natural gas.
Between 2018 and 2022, the company displaced the equivalent of 36 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of diesel that didn’t get used, or the equivalent emissions of about 58,000 passenger vehicles.
Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose speaks to reporters during the opening of a new Tourmaline/Clean Energy compressed natural gas fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose noted that the trucking sector switching fuel from diesel to natural gas is gaining momentum, notably in Asia.
A “small but growing” share of China’s trucking fleet moving to natural gas helped drive an 11 percent reduction in overall diesel consumption this June compared to the previous year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“China’s talking about 30 percent of the trucks sold going forward are to be CNG trucks, and it’s all about reducing emissions,” Rose said.
“It’s one global atmosphere. We’re going to reduce them here; they’re going to reduce them there and everybody’s a net winner.”
Switching from diesel to CNG is “extremely cost competitive” for trucking fleets, said Clean Energy CEO Andrew Littlefair.
“It will really move the big rigs that we need in Western Canada for the long distance and heavy loads,” he said.
Tourmaline and Clean Energy aim to have seven CNG fuelling stations operating by the end of 2025. Construction is set to begin in Kamloops, B.C., followed by Fort McMurray and Fort St. John.
“You’ll have that Western Canadian corridor, and then we’ll grow it from there,” Littlefair said.
Multi-million dollar drug seizure in southwest Edmonton
10 reasons Donald Trump is headed for a landslide victory over Kamala Harris
Ottawa’s plan to decarbonize Canada’s electricity by 2035 not feasible and would require equivalent of 23 Site C hydroelectric dams
Release the names! Foreign interference scandal reaching boiling point in shocking press conference
-
C2C Journal20 hours agoMischief Trial of the Century: Inside the Crown’s Bogus, Punitive and Occasionally Hilarious Case Against the Freedom Convoy’s Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, Part I
-
Bruce Dowbiggin1 day agoWhy Canada’s Elites Are Captives To The Kamala Narrative
-
Business23 hours agoPremiers fight to lower gas taxes as Trudeau hikes pump costs
-
Agriculture1 day agoSweeping ‘pandemic prevention’ bill would give Trudeau government ability to regulate meat production
-
Alberta2 days agoAlberta Bill of Rights Amendment, Bill 24 – Stronger protections for personal rights
-
Economy2 days agoOne Solution to Canada’s Housing Crisis: Move. Toronto loses nearly half million people to more affordable locations
-
Economy2 days agoGas prices plummet in BC thanks to TMX pipeline expansion
-
Business2 days agoTrudeau government spends millions producing podcasts