Sander Duncanson
May 5, 2021
A pipeline that supplies fuel to Sarnia’s biggest employers is scheduled to shut down May 12. Enbridge’s Line 5 crosses through Michigan and into Ontario, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and eliminating it will impact not only the delivery of fuel but the future of thousands of jobs.
The deadline was imposed seven months ago by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer who cancelled the easement that allows Calgary-based Enbridge’s pipeline to pass under the Straits of Mackinac. Enbridge has indicated it will defy the order. The two sides are in mediation and it could turn into a dispute between Canada and the United States. The Ontario government indicates 4,900 jobs in Sarnia are in jeopardy if Line 5 is shut down.
Recently the National Post’s Geoffrey Morgan spoke with Sander Duncanson, a partner in Osler’s Regulatory, Environmental, Aboriginal and Land Group in Calgary about the issue.
“Typically, in a situation like this, the government would expect that the company would be taking the lead in exhausting all of its legal options,” Sander says.
“Once you’re into a dispute mechanism, you’re acknowledging that there is now a formal legal dispute between the two countries, and I can imagine that the federal government would prefer not to do that if they can avoid it,” he adds.
A House of Commons committee has been formed in Canada to consider the situation. The fight over Line 5 is considered part of a broader dispute over oil and gas pipelines in North America.
For more information, read Geoffrey Morgan’s article, “As clock ticks down on Enbridge’s Line 5, anxiety grows in Sarnia and Michigan,” published May 5, 2021 in The National Post.