Frustration over the Trudeau government’s purchase of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline brought many protesters outside a federal building in downtown Saskatoon on Monday.
Over 25 people attended the rally, joining a nationwide effort to protest the decision to buy the pipeline project. Saskatoon’s protest was organized by Climate Justice Saskatoon and the Council of Canadians’ local chapter.
Organizers gathered signatures for a petition looking to pressure the federal government, which announced last week it would purchase the pipeline and complete the expansion for $4.5 billion.
“I’m outraged that Trudeau is giving billions of our tax dollars to a Texas corporation, when our schools and hospitals are crying out for funding, and many First Nations communities don’t have safe drinking water,” protest spokesperson Dianne Rhodes said in a release. “Taxpayers are not going to let him get away with this.”
Calling it a “snap action,” it was one of around 100 others expected to happen across Canada as part of the “National Day of Action to Stop the Kinder Morgan Buyout.”
The group claims the pipeline will contribute to climate change and goes against the promises made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the last election.
“It is really important for people who make decisions on our behalf to have good values, and if they don’t have good values, then they can’t make decisions,” protester Anne Brander said.
According to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, the deal will be finalized sometime in August, and the federal government would try and sell the pipeline once the project is finished.
The controversial pipeline has received criticism from Indigenous communities and environmental groups, including court challenges from British Columbia’s government.
The expansion to the pipeline is expected to triple the amount of bitumen being shipped from Alberta to B.C.’s coast.
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