Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has issued the following statement on U.S. President Donald Trump's approval of the Keystone XL pipeline:
We welcome President Trump’s approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. This is a win for both our countries’ energy industries, for energy consumers and for energy security.
I have said before that if Keystone had been judged on its merits and on the facts – it would have been approved years ago.
Our government has advocated strongly for Keystone. As the National Post’s Claudia Cattaneo succinctly put it in a column about Keystone, the pipeline “meets U.S. criteria, enhances U.S. energy security, feeds Canadian heavy oil to U.S. refineries that want it, is important to Canada’s economy, and is better for the environment than rail.”
For Canada, it means we can move our oil – safe, secure Canadian oil – to our biggest customer and to tidewater. It will help lower the price differential Canada receives for its oil – that differential costs our governments and producers hundreds of millions of dollars each year. It will also help free up capacity on our railways for moving other products.
For Saskatchewan, there will be about 2,200 jobs building the 530 kilometers of Keystone XL in Alberta and Saskatchewan at a cost of approximately $1.2 billion. Keystone XL is projected to result in an additional $3.5 million in additional property tax revenues in Alberta per year and $1.3 million in Saskatchewan.
This is also good news for Evraz in Regina. The company participated in the Keystone project up to the point that it was shut down by the Obama Administration and are optimistic their company will continue to be involved in the project now that it has been approved to go forward.
