Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is in B.C. this week to drum up support for Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, but don't expect her to make any public appearances.
Notley is trying to sell the contentious project, which would triple the amount of diluted bitumen flowing from her province's oil sands to Metro Vancouver, amid increasingly active opposition from people on the West Coast.
She has scheduled a small handful of media appearances and a private meeting with the BC NDP, but Notley will not be facing the public directly to make her case – something Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver finds "shameful."
"All of this is being done behind closed doors," said Weaver, who challenged the premier to a televised debate.
"Rather than meet in private, I would like to meet her in public and I would love to have a debate with Rachel Notley as to the merits of the Trans Mountain pipeline."
Weaver, who is a climate scientist, said despite assuring claims from Notley and the federal government there is no way to safely manage the influx of diluted bitumen that would be loaded onto tankers in Burnaby if the expansion goes forward.
"We simply cannot clean up a spill of diluted bitumen," Weaver said. "There's no world-class spill response that will ever be able to clean it up, because you can't. It sinks, and once it's sunk you can't get it."
He also suggested the meeting scheduled between Notley and BC NDP leader John Horgan is an attempt to convince the party to join the Alberta NDP in supporting the pipeline. She will also be meeting with B.C. Premier Christy Clark later this week in Ottawa.
Notley would not agree to an interview Monday, but issued a statement describing the Kinder Morgan expansion as "an opportunity to show that a strong economy that benefits working families and world-class environmental standards go hand in hand."
"I look forward to having thoughtful and constructive conversations about the mutual benefits the project will bring to our two provinces," Notley said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Mi-Jung Lee
