READ MORE: Trans Mountain pipeline court decision ‘a real sad day for Alberta,’ says energy expert

On Thursday morning, a panel of three judges said the National Energy Board’s review of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal was so flawed that the federal government could not use it as a basis for its decision to approve the project. “We are taking the time now to understand the court ruling, which addresses two things that are very important to this government — getting the science and the environmental protections right and making sure we are walking forward in a true path of reconciliation and partnership with Indigenous Peoples,” Trudeau said after an event in Oshawa, Ont. Thursday’s court ruling prompted Alberta Premier Rachel Notley to announce that her province is withdrawing from the controversial national climate change plan and will stay out until the federal government gets its act together, as she put it. Without Alberta, Notley asserted, the national plan “isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

But Trudeau suggested Notley’s move doesn’t alter the federal commitment to the national climate change plan — or have any impact on it for at least a few years. “I’ve always said, if there are provinces that don’t want to participate in this climate change plan, the federal government will do it alone.”

However, he said that won’t be an immediate issue with Alberta since that province’s carbon pricing plan remains in place and “is equivalent to the targets set by the federal government, at least for the next few years.”

Notley’s government started imposing a $20-per-tonne carbon tax last year, which rose to $30 per tonne this year.
A Canadian court overturns Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline.