British Columbia, Canada — Canadian Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that the federal government has reached an agreement with Kinder Morgan Canada to purchase the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and infrastructure related to the Trans Mountain Expansion Project for $4.5 billion. In response, Joanna Kerr, Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada, said:

“Kinder Morgan’s decision to walk away from its controversial pipeline and tanker project is a testament to the hard work of the Indigenous-led movement to stop this dangerous project, which threatens water, land and the climate. Kinder Morgan has deemed the new Trans Mountain pipeline and tanker project too great a financial risk.

“The Canadian government’s hardline support for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion undermines Canada’s role as a global climate leader and runs counter to its commitments under the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — both of which the Canadian government signed.

“Trudeau is gambling billions of Canadian taxpayer dollars on an oil project that will never be built — a project that Kinder Morgan itself has indicated is ‘untenable’ and that faces more than a dozen lawsuits, crumbling economics and a growing resistance movement that is spreading around the world.

“Trudeau’s decision comes on the same day the Royal Bank of Scotland became the latest global bank to scale back financing for tar sands projects — following the lead of both BNP Paribas and HSBC, Europe’s two biggest banks.

“Two out of five proposed new tar sands pipelines have now been canceled in the face of Indigenous and environmental legal challenges, widespread public opposition and changing economics. The Trans Mountain Expansion faces even steeper obstacles and will soon become the third, and Trudeau just put the Canadian public on the hook for the costs. History will judge this decision harshly.”

ENDS

Contacts:

Leola Abraham, Global Communications Lead, Greenpeace USA: +1 (202) 413 8930, [email protected]

Greenpeace International Press Desk: +31 (0) 20 718 2470, [email protected] (available 24 hours)