Archives for September 25, 2019

A Federal Court judge has granted the British Columbia government a temporary injunction against an Alberta law that could have limited oil exports to other provinces.

Justice Sebastien Grammond says Alberta’s so-called turn-off-the-taps legislation raises a serious issue and could cause irreparable harm to the residents of B.C.

He says B.C. has met the test for blocking the law until the courts can decide its validity.

“British Columbia has met the criteria usually applied by the courts for the issuance of such an injunction,” Grammond wrote in his decision.

“It has shown that the validity of the Act raises a serious issue. It has demonstrated that an embargo of the nature evoked by the members of Alberta’s legislature when debating the Act would cause irreparable harm to the residents of British Columbia.”

The legislation gives Alberta the power to crimp energy exports from the province.

It was passed, but never used, by Alberta’s former NDP government as a way to put pressure on B.C. to drop its fight against the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion to the West Coast.

The new United Conservative government proclaimed it into force shortly after Premier Jason Kenney was sworn into office in April, but he had said it wouldn’t be used unless B.C. throws up further roadblocks to the pipeline.

B.C. has called the law a loaded gun and had asked the courts to make sure it didn’t accidentally go off.

The Trans Mountain expansion, first approved in 2016, would triple the amount of oil flowing from the oilsands to B.C.’s Lower Mainland and from there to lucrative new markets across the Pacific.

The federal government bought the existing pipeline last year for $4.5 billion after its original builder, Texas-based Kinder Morgan, threatened to walk away from the project because of B.C.’s resistance.

The Federal Court of Appeal quashed the approval months later on the grounds that there hadn’t been enough consultation with First Nations or consideration of the pipeline’s potential impact on marine wildlife.

The project was approved for a second time by the federal cabinet this summer.

The Liberal and Conservative leaders are both in key election battlegrounds today, Justin Trudeau in B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Andrew Scheer in southwestern Ontario.

Scheer starts his day just outside Niagara Falls before making stops in Cambridge, Kitchener and London, alongside Conservative candidates who are all trying to take ridings back from Liberals who won in previously Tory areas.

Trudeau is making an announcement in mid-morning Pacific time, at a company in Burnaby working on cutting-edge battery technology for uses such as electric vehicles.

The announcement is in the riding of Burnaby South, which is held now by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

Singh is doing some counterprogramming, making an announcement on climate change in Winnipeg and then continuing west to appear in his home district for a town hall by the end of the day.

Meanwhile on the East Coast, Green Leader Elizabeth May is making a morning announcement at a post office in Sackville, N.B., before moving on to Halifax.

A CBD line of products Martha Stewart is developing with Canopy Growth will likely hit the market in the middle of next year, said the American food and lifestyle guru.

The pair is working on some “really good projects right now” and if all is approved they would be ready by mid-2020, said Stewart Tuesday.

“We’re developing different things for the home, for food and for pets at present. I’m also interested in skin care and other things like that,” she said during an on-stage interview at the Elevate Conference in Toronto.

In February, Stewart said she was teaming up with the Smiths Falls, Ont.-based licensed producer in an advisory role to develop a line of products containing cannabidiol or CBD.

Canopy said at the time it would leverage Stewart’s knowledge of consumer products while exploring the use of CBD and other cannabinoids as they related to both humans and pets.

CBD is the non-intoxicating compound found in cannabis and hemp. While pot remains illegal at the federal level south of the border, the U.S. legalized hemp cultivation at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. political climate is becoming more receptive to cannabis with legislation potentially opening the door to the massive market. Earlier this year, the bipartisan STATES ACT — legislation that would amend the Controlled Substances Act and could effectively make cannabis federally legal in states where recreational consumption is legal — was reintroduced in Congress.

And this week, the U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act — legislation that would offer protections for financial institutions that serve state-authorized cannabis and ancillary businesses.

Stewart also said during the discussion alongside Canopy’s chief executive Mark Zekulin that she hoped that cannabis would be legalized eventually in the U.S.

“There’s been a tremendous stigma attached to it in terms of crime… And I think that, that will all go away.”

She said she ventured into the space because it was an “emerging and exciting market.”

Stewart, who has written several cookbooks, said she isn’t ruling out developing one focused on cooking with cannabis.

“I’m not ready to do it yet, but that might be a possibility,” she said.

Bombardier Inc. says federal authorities have certified its two new business jets, a key step in its turnaround plan as the company seeks to exploit the growing market for large, private jetliners.

The plane-and-train maker says Transport Canada has given the green light for the Global 5500 and Global 6500, which Bombardier plans to enter into service later this year. The aircraft are updates to Global 5000 and 6000s with changed wing, new flight deck, redesigned interior and new engines.

Bombardier says certification for the fuel-efficient luxury planes — listed at US$46 million and US$56 million, respectively — by U.S. and European aviation authorities is expected shortly, though no timeline was offered.

The transportation company, which shed the last of its commercial aircraft business with the sale — announced in June — of its struggling regional jet program to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., is placing renewed focus on business jets.

Bombardier is aiming for US$8.5 billion in annual revenues by 2020, driven largely by Global 7500 sales — a major bump from US$5 billion in 2017. The business jet backlog now totals about US$15.3 billion.

The Global 5500 and 6500, along with the flagship 7500 that was certified a year ago, come partly as a response to products from rival business jet manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. as demand for the larger jetliners keeps rising.