HomeWorld NewsFinance Canada defends $10 billion loan guarantee for Trans Mountain

Finance Canada defends $10 billion loan guarantee for Trans Mountain

  • May 12, 2022
  • Posted by: Bastion team
  • Category: World News
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Finance Canada is defending its $10 billion loan guarantee for Trans Mountain to help the company finish its pipeline expansion after opposition parties and environmental groups called it a fossil fuel subsidy.

This financial support comes after the government said in February that no more public money would be poured into the project.

“This is a common practice which puts in place an insurance policy for the institutions that have invested in the project—it does not reflect any new public spending,” a news release from Finance Canada said. “The Government of Canada has not spent any money to put this guarantee in place.”

Politico first reported the government was providing the loan guarantee.

On Parliament Hill, CBC journalists asked Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland several times about the new federal support for Trans Mountain. The minister didn’t stop to answer questions.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland passes reporters as she arrives for a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)

In February, Freeland announced the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project’s costs had nearly tripled from its initial $7.4 billion price tag — which then-owner Kinder Morgan projected in 2018 — to $21.4 billion.

“I want to assure Canadians that there will be no additional public money invested in (Trans Mountain),” Freeland said at the time.

“(Trans Mountain) will secure the…

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