Last week, B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Alison Redford got down to some serious business of smiling for the cameras.
Previously, Clark had famously said no pipelines would even be considered in B.C. until Alberta and the proponents had satisfied her government's five extremely vague conditions. Though it did not contain a single detail, the press conference seemed to announce that "progress" had been made. We do know one of the five conditions - the one demanding a share of royalties to compensate B.C. for taking on the environmental risk - is still a non-starter for Alberta.
But apparently, staff for both premiers put on their beer goggles last Monday night and concluded that impasse doesn't stop B.C. from demanding money from the pipeline companies themselves. Presto, the deal was back on along with one of Clark's treasured photo ops.
We don't know if Clark and Redford really are besties now, or if they ever were the frenemies they appeared to be. But all of this lends credence to the cynics who predicted the "five conditions" were all just talk - with plenty of wiggle room. Neither premier actually has a veto in whether the pipeline gets approved. It's the National Energy Board that gets to decide whether the Northern Gateway will become a reality.
The biggest X-factors in all of this are still the dozens of First Nations who will have their territories bisected by a pipeline they are, so far, dead set against.
We'd bet the Clark and Redford love-in will not be the end of the pipeline debate. Not by a long shot.
