Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government wants President Donald Trump to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
The pipeline was rejected by former President Barack Obama and is angrily opposed by a swathe of environmental groups on both sides of the border.
Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Friday that the pipeline has passed all the necessary regulatory approvals and Canada is waiting for the new U.S. administration to overturn Obama’s veto and move forward.
Carr spoke to CTV’s “Power Play” from Washington, D.C., where he was part of an inauguration day brigade of upper-echelon federal cabinet ministers who came to host a cocktail party at the Canadian embassy.
Carr said both Trump and Canadians should know “that we think the project is good for Canada.”
Carr stated that the project “will create jobs and be good both for American workers and Canadian workers.”
Obama shelved the proposed 1,200-mile pipeline from the Canadian province of Alberta to Nebraska in November 2015 after caving to environmentalists.
Trudeau has already discussed the pipeline with Trump when the two shared their first phone call after Trump’s electoral victory. According to the prime minister, Trump “brought up Keystone XL and indicated that he was very supportive of it and hoping that were going to be able to work together.”
Trump during the campaign said he would approve it but also that “the people of the United States should be given a piece — a significant piece — of the profits.”
Tim McMillan, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers chief, criticized Trump’s inauguration speech but called it a “bit of a wake-up call that we need to strengthen our relationships on energy with other countries.”
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