Alberta Ramps Up Kinder Fight With Ad Campaign, Oil Cutoff Law

(Bloomberg) -- Alberta is ramping up its fight with British Columbia for Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain project with powers to shut off oil shipments to its coastal neighbor and a campaign to influence public opinion.

The C$1.2 million ($940,000) advertising campaign on the benefits of expanding the Canadian oil-sands link to the Pacific will feature billboards and allocate C$700,000 of spending in British Columbia, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said during a press conference on Thursday.

Notley also blasted recent comments Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson made in an interview with Bloomberg News in New York. Robertson said that the pipeline will not be built because local opposition will only intensify and because Canada needs to get off of fossil fuels.

Robertson’s comments “show a tremendous inability to look beyond the most local of borders,” Notley said. “They obviously demonstrate a lack of knowledge about what generates wealth in Canada.”

Notley said she’ll respond at greater length to Robertson in a piece in Vancouver media.

Shares of Kinder’s Canadian unit have dropped 17 percent from their February high, and were down 1.6 percent to C$16.56 in Toronto on Thursday.

The premier also said Alberta’s government, controlled by her New Democratic Party, will pass Bill 12, which is designed to allow the province to restrict its shipments of oil. The measure was introduced last month, but not passed into law yet.

Alberta also plans to participate in a court case where British Columbia is seeking to assert its jurisdiction over coastline protection measures that would interfere with the federally approved Trans Mountain expansion, she said.

Notley said her administration is speaking with Kinder Morgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration about solutions to the pipeline impasse on a “daily basis.”

“I am very confident that, working together, we are going to get this done,” Notley said.

--With assistance from Natalie Obiko Pearson

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Orland in Calgary at korland@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada, Stephen Wicary

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