Justin Trudeau's pipeline challenge truly begins

Natural Resource Minister Jim Carr says his comments about the possible use of "defence forces" or police during future protests over pipeline projects approved this week weren't meant to be read as a threat.

"There is no warning intended," Carr told The House.

• ANALYSIS - Justin Trudeau boxed himself in on more than just pipelines: Chris Hall
• ANALYSIS - Trans Mountain pipeline expansion: What comes next?

Carr spoke on Thursday to business leaders in Edmonton, where he heard from pipeline companies and contractors worried over the safety of their workers in face of potentially violent protests.

Opponents to Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain project, which would expand an existing pipeline carrying diluted oil sands bitumen from Alberta to a terminal near Vancouver, have vowed to delay or kill it by any means possible.

"If people choose for their own reasons not to be peaceful, then the government of Canada, through its defence forces, through its police forces, will ensure that people will be kept safe," Carr told the crowd.

"If people determine for their own reasons that that's not the path they want to follow, then we live under the rule of law."

Carr told The House he wasn't suggesting the government would bring in the army to face off with protesters.

"I mean to say that, if you look at all of my comments, that we celebrate and cherish our capacity in this free society to be be able to protest," he said.

"People will protest in peaceful ways and that's not only acceptable, it's a hallmark of who we are as Canadians."

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley will do her part to sell the controversial project.

She will be heading to British Columbia early next week to try to calm concerns on the West Coast over the approval of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline.

"People talk about how many jobs were lost in Alberta as a result of the drop in the price of oil, but there were actually a lot of jobs lost in B.C. as well. A lot of people who live in B.C. work in the oil patch," Notley told Chris Hall.

"Quite frankly, as we make the transition to a more diversified economy, to one that's more based on renewable energy, we need to finance that transition. We can't turn it around on a dime. That's not a just transition. And so, I can make that case to people not only in Alberta, but in B.C."

The newly-approved pipeline projects are seen as a big win for her province, whose oil-reliant economy seems to be on a roller coaster.

Scott Vaughn, president of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, argues it's time to get off that ride.

The not-for-profit organization released a report earlier this week where, among other things, it argued Canada should rethink how it exploits fossil fuels.

"We need now to look at how do we take the revenues from those pipelines, the rent that Canada can get from those pipelines, and invest them in new, higher quality, higher growth jobs in order to push up those human capital investments," Vaughn, a former commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, said.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is planning to fight the Trans Mountain project, despite the government's approval.

"You can't suck and blow at the same time. You can't say you're going to fight greenhouse gases and approve a lot of projects that will increase greenhouse gases," May told The House mid-week podcast.

May said despite what the Prime Minister is saying, there's no economic studies to suggest both approved projects are in Canada's "best interest."

"We will be there. We will stand there. We will do everything possible to block this project because it's not in British Columbia's interest, it does violence to the commitment that the Trudeau administration made to respect First Nations rights, just as it does to the commitment to meet Paris climate target," she said.

Will a climate change deal emerge from first ministers' meeting?

The balancing act between the economy and the environment will be on display next week when Trudeau and the premiers sit down to come up with a Canadian plan to fight climate change.

Manitoba's Premier Brian Pallister hasn't signed on to the national price on carbon scheme yet, saying he wants to find a "made-in-Manitoba" option.

The new Progressive Conservative premier told The House there are a number of outstanding issues that need to be settled ahead of the first ministers meeting when it comes to a price on carbon.

"The failure to address the issue should not be an option for any of us. The question of doing it in an intelligent way, a strategic way that works is the real deal," he said.

"The design of that [national carbon pricing plan] shouldn't be homogenous. We've already seen different province take different approaches. Other provinces have had, clearly,  some concessions from the federal government."

The province has invested heavily in hydro, something Pallister would like to see acknowledged on a national scale.

"Especially given the United States energy market and some of the recent trends in the United States, I think it's particularly important that we make the Canadian confederation work better and we pursue opportunities like inter-provincial hydro," he said.

Marc Mayrand's 'challenging years'

The "in-and-out" campaign financing case, Pierre Poutine's role in the robocalls affair, the controversy surrounding the Fair Elections Act, and the longest federal election campaign in modern history.

"These were challenging years," Canada's chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand told The House this week, just a few days before he ends 10-year term as the head of Elections Canada.

As he gets ready to leave, Mayrand said the organization has gone through a lot in the past decade. 

"These were years that the system was put to some test, in a sense," he said. "Changes have been made to make sure that our electoral system continues to deserve public confidence."

And the challenges are far from over.

"There are still challenges in terms of inclusiveness, reaching out to Canadians who are less engaged or face different barriers before they can exercise their franchise... there's a lot to do, still," Mayrand said, adding that rapidly evolving technologies also create problems. But he also said Canada is behind in embracing some aspects of technology.

"We also need to think about a form of electronic voting," he said, arguing the opposite of the electoral committee that tabled its report on electoral reform this week.

Mayrand also weighed in on the committee's main, and most controversial recommendation.

The outgoing chief electoral officer says Elections Canada doesn't have enough specifics about the government's proposed electoral reform to say whether it can organize a referendum on it and make the necessary changes to the voting system in time for the 2019 federal election.

• ANALYSIS - Time for Liberals to decide if they're serious about electoral reform: Aaron Wherry
• Minister 'disappointed' as electoral reform committee recommends referendum on proportional representation

"We can hardly start to prepare seriously without knowing if and how the referendum act would need to be amended," Mayrand said.

On Thursday, the special committee of MPs studying electoral reform recommended the government hold a referendum asking Canadians whether they want to stick with the current first-past-the-post system or move to a new proportional voting system.

"There has to be more specifics as to what people will be voting on," he said. "My sense is that we still don't know what alternative system exactly will be proposed, except that it would be a mixed member representation."

In House: Is electoral reform doomed?

Our In House panelists also discussed how the electoral reform story played out this week.

"That was a really low point for her," said senior iPolitics and Toronto Star political writer Susan Delacourt of Democratic Institutions minister Maryam Monsef's response to the committee.

"To insult the work of the committee, and insult a formula… these guys like science and formulas and evidence.

"This was not the best moment," she said.

Joël-Denis Bellavance from La Presse agreed, and added that she may have been following marching orders from above.

"I don't think she was freelancing. Maybe the words chosen were not the ones the prime minister would have used, but she was just implementing what the prime minister wants to happen. Which means no electoral reform."

"This reform is dead," he said.