Montreal (AFP)
The Canadian government on Monday pledged to continue to support the Keystone XL pipeline project between Canada and the United States after Canadian media revealed Joe Biden's intention to cancel it upon taking office.
The cancellation of the decree allowing the pipeline to cross the border will be part of the measures Joe Biden must announce on Wednesday, the day he takes office, according to information from Canadian channels CBC and CTV broadcast on Sunday.
"Our government's support for the Keystone XL project is long-standing and well-known. And we continue to promote it to our American colleagues," said Seamus O'Regan, Minister of Natural Resources, on Monday.
The project will "strengthen vital energy relations between Canada and the United States" and create "thousands" of jobs "for workers on both sides of the border," said the Canadian minister.
The project of the Canadian group TC Energy, of some 8 billion US dollars (6.6 billion euros), is to transport more than 800,000 barrels of oil per day, over nearly 2,000 km, between the Canadian province of Alberta and US refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
Launched in 2008, the project was blocked by ex-president Barack Obama, then authorized by his successor Donald Trump.
It is criticized by environmentalists because of its impact on greenhouse gas emissions.
"It would be, in our opinion, a serious economic and strategic error" judged the Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney, during a press briefing.
"If a precedent is set, if the US government can unilaterally end pipelines that cross the border and already exist," then that precedent could apply to the "many other pipelines that provide Canadian energy to US consumers" , he regretted.
"If the project is canceled, it will cost the Alberta economy about $ 30 billion by 2030," Kenney also said.
This province is in the midst of an economic slump with the collapse of oil prices, a consequence in particular of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Sunday, Conservative (opposition) party leader Erin O'Toole said such a decision would "devastate thousands of Canadian families already hard hit by the economic crisis."
© 2021 AFP