The federal government announced Tuesday its approval for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
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BԪַToday IBԪַm announcing that our government has approved the Trans Mountain expansion project going forward,BԪַ Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference in Ottawa.
The decision to reapprove the project comes nine months after the Federal Court of Appeal rejected the original federal approval, citing incomplete Indigenous consultations and a faulty environmental review.
Trudeau says he is sympathetic to concerns about the environment and the need to transition to cleaner sources of energy, but says that in order to fund that transition, Canada needs to take advantage of its natural resources while they are still needed.
BԪַThe policies of the last century will not serve Canadians in this one,BԪַ he said.
The government will require that every dollar in federal revenue coming from the project be reinvested in clean energy and green technology. That includes an estimated $500 million a year in new annual corporate tax revenues once the pipeline is in service, as well as any revenues from the promised sale of the entire expanded pipeline back to the private sector.
Recent weeks have seen protesters take to the streets of Victoria, Vancouver and other B.C. cities to rally against the pipeline.
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