Pembina formed a
new partnership with an Indigenous group to purchase the controversial Trans Mountain Pipeline.
What is Trans Mountain: The Trans Mountain Pipeline is the only pipeline that transports oil directly from Alberta to Canada’s west coast.
- Previous owners of the pipeline, Kinder Morgan, set to expand the pipeline with a second line in 2013.
Why the controversy: Some local Indigenous groups and activists criticized the expansion over its potential environmental impact.
- Concerned about whether the expansion would get approval from the National Energy Board, Kinder Morgan gave up on the project.
- Soon after their announcement, the feds stepped in to purchase the pipeline from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion to guarantee that the expansion would be built.
While the feds bought the existing infrastructure, the government intends to invest an additional $7.5 billion to complete construction.
Pipeline auction: The feds intend to sell the pipeline after the expansion is complete, and prospective buyers are already lining up.
- Pembina, the third largest pipeline company in Canada, has joined an Indigenous group as an equal partner in a new entity called Chinook Pathways.
- Another Indigenous group, Project Reconciliation, announced an alternative bid that would retain full Indigenous ownership of the pipeline.
Zoom out: If the feds do sell to an Indigenous group, the deal would be a landmark transaction with Indigenous ownership of a major piece of Canadian energy infrastructure.