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Canada-U.S. talks over Enbridge Line 5 dispute to start soon, feds say

The "Three Amigos" are set to meet for the first time in five years. U.S. President Joe Biden will host Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador next week. Ahead of this high stakes meeting, "The West Block" host Mercedes Stephenson speaks with Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman about our nation’s priorities including the future of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline and relations with China. – Nov 14, 2021

Formal talks between Canada and the United States over a disputed Michigan pipeline should start
soon, Ottawa said on Wednesday, the latest development in an affair souring bilateral relations.

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Last month Canada invoked a 1977 treaty with the United States to trigger negotiations over Enbridge Inc’s Line 5, which Michigan wants to shut down on environmental grounds.

Michigan’s governor said on Tuesday she would dismiss her lawsuit against the pipeline in federal court, clearing the way for a separate case in state court. Canada’s foreign ministry said the move did not affect talks under the 1977 treaty.

 

“We expect the formal negotiations to begin soon,” ministry spokeswoman Clara Trudeau said by email, noting that “Canada has consistently supported the continued, safe operation of Line 5, and raised it with the U.S. government at every level.”

The treaty has never been invoked before.

Line 5 ships 540,000 barrels per day of crude and refined products from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario. Michigan ordered it shut down by May over worries a leak could develop in a four-mile section running beneath the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes.

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Enbridge ignored Michigan’s order and the sides are embroiled in a legal battle.

Canada’s federal Trade Minister Mary Ng is due to raise the matter during three days of talks in Washington this week, her office said.

She will also discuss irritants such as U.S. duties on Canadian software lumber and planned U.S. tax breaks for domestically produced electric vehicles.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Richard Chang)

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