The federal government bought the Trans Mountain project, finished building it, and now owns the pipeline.
The case was that access to tidewater would reduce U.S. pricing power and open global markets like Asia. Now that the pipeline exists and Canada owns it, the question is simple.
Does public ownership mean Canadians benefit through toll revenue, better pricing leverage, and higher tax income? Or does it mainly mean the public took the risk while most of the upside still flows elsewhere?
The original plan was to sell it after it was built. Trudeau said pretty plainly he didn’t want the government to own it long term.
No idea how that’s going… if it’s happened, if they sold some percentage of it… if it’s even still the plan.
Pipeline or not, the government gets a cut of all exports, so even without ownership, there mere fact it’s getting used generates revenue for the feds.
Generates revenue that will almost scratch the surface of what they spent to buy it and finish it.
And will continue to contribute to the climate change that is destroying Canadian towns and cities nearly every year that will need federal funding to help rebuild.
Oh yeah, to be on the hook for the cost and only have tax revenue from exports would be insane.
I think that’s roughly why thier plan was to sell it. Build it, recoup the cost from the sale, and then from that net-zero position take additional revenue from exports (and all the peripheral benefits like the jobs it supports)
The other alternative would be to operate it and be collecting money from the actual use of the pipeline. That would have a much longer return on investment, and puts the government in the business of pipeline operation… which I don’t think is appropriate for many reasons. Which is actually weird because I’m generally in favour of public ownership. But not for trans-provincial pipelines.
