Feds quietly approved $20 billion loan for TMX—just days before Freeland left cabinet
Total funding is north of $50 billion as of publication, though it’s not clear how the latest round of borrowing will affect the final sale price.
The Trudeau government quietly approved a $20 billion loan in late-December to further finance the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline.
Export Development Canada’s Canada Account is providing the funding in a bid to reduce interest costs and make the project financially viable, as first reported by BIV.
Canada Account buys into projects of “national interest” when a Crown corporation can no longer meet its financial obligations, despite a promise to cease further funding. “The government will spend no additional public money on the project,” then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in 2022.
Environmental Defence notes the Crown corporation administers the account, though the federal government remains involved.
PM Trudeau's reaction to the Trans Mountain pipeline becoming operational after the government's purchase years ago. He reflects on the importance of a 'net-zero world' but admits Canadians still rely on oil and gas to function. https://t.co/PHR7jF0Tzk pic.twitter.com/N3PRpzjfwU
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) May 4, 2024
“[The loan is] a violation of the federal government’s promise not to provide further public money to the project,” Julia Levin, associate director of National Climate with Environmental Defence, said in a statement.
Total funding is north of $50 billion as of publication, though it’s not clear how the latest round of borrowing will affect the final sale price.
The rate loan was approved last December 13—three days before Freeland resigned from the portfolio.
“This newest massive loan will only benefit CEOs from the oil and banking industry, while Canadians—already struggling with an affordability crisis—will be left on the hook to cover the costs,” said Levin.
“Let TMX be a warning: It’s taxpayers who end up paying the price, as multinational, foreign-owned companies reap the rewards,” she added.
Meanwhile, Budget Officer Yves Giroux expects taxpayers to lose money, should the Trudeau government eventually sell TMX, a project plagued by costly delays and regulatory hurdles since 2019, when work first began.
Giroux called on the Commons Natural Resources Committee last November to audit the pipeline’s cost overruns, given that Liberal MPs rejected special hearings by a 5-4 vote in 2018.
Analysis by DeSmog claims TMX may never be financially viable, though executives with Trans Mountain Corp believe patience is key to finding the right buyer. “We can get our capital back,” said Mark Maki, chief executive at the agency overseeing the pipeline.
TMX, Canada’s first pipeline to the coast in over four decades, carries crude from Alberta to the B.C. coast. It tripled the pipeline’s daily capacity by an additional 590,000 barrels since last May.
Canada has the world’s third-largest reserves of oil.
Alex Dhaliwal
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Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-02-12 19:36:38 -0500Governments are King Midas in reverse. Everything they put their hands on turns to crap. It’s time we freed free enterprise by getting government out of business ventures. All this overspending would never have happened if it weren’t for Trudeau and his lunatic ideas. Let’s always remind people that socialism NEVER works.
