Canada has once again invoked a longstanding treaty with the US as it seeks to keep a controversial cross-border pipeline open, warning of “significant” economic damage to both countries in the event of a shutdown.
Canada’s foreign minister said Line 5, a pipeline operated by Calgary-based Enbridge, was a critical source of energy security.
“[A shutdown of the pipeline] would impact energy prices, such as propane for heating homes and the price of gas at the pump. At a time when global inflation is making it hard on families to make ends meet, these are unacceptable outcomes,” the minister, Mélanie Joly, said in a statement.
She added that the government worried the “domino effects” of a shutdown could spill into other parts of Canadian economy, and into communities on both sides of the border.
Built in 1953, the 645-mile pipeline travels through Michigan and under the Great Lakes to deliver nearly half of the oil needs of Ontario and Quebec, as well as propane for the state of Michigan.
The defensive posture from Canada comes as the Bad River Band, an Indigenous tribe in northern Wisconsin, argues that Enbridge no longer has the right to cross its land after its easement expired.
The dispute marks the latest front in the battle against a pipeline that Canada has said is vital to its energy needs.
The Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has previously raised fears that a failure in the pipeline could cause catastrophic environmental damage. Enbridge says the pipeline is safe but will build a new tunnel to contain the pipeline underneath the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes. The company has also promised re-routing Line 5 around the Bad River reservation in a bid to resolve the standoff “amicably” – a proposal Canada “strongly” supports, said Joly.
One of Canada’s most powerful tools in the fight is a 1977 treaty, ratified by the US Congress, which governs the free flow of oil between Canada and the United States. Both governments intended the deal to be a long-term arrangement and the treaty requires either side give 10 years’ notice to withdraw.
Canada last invoked the treaty in November after mediation with Michigan failed, forcing nation-level negotiations.
“This treaty ensures the uninterrupted transmission of hydrocarbons – in the case of Line 5, light crude oil and natural gas liquids – from one place in Canada to another, transiting through the United States,” said Joly.
Last year, Canada’s natural resources minister said the continued operation of the pipeline was “non-negotiable” and warned that in addition to thousands of job losses, a shutdown would require 800 tanker rail cars and 2,000 trucks each day to move oil.
Enbridge says it has never experienced a leak in the underwater section of Line 5. but in the last three years, the pipeline has been struck by boat anchors and cables. And in 2010, a separate Enbridge pipeline spilled 3.2m litres of oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.
